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"AS GOES NEW YORK, SO 
GOES THE ELECTION." 



In 1908 the vote of this state 
for Presidential electors was: 

Taft - 870,070 
Bryan - 667,468 



TAFT'S 
PLURALITY 



202,602 



Last fall, in an "off year," 
with only members of the Assem- 
bly to elect, the Republican Party 
carried the state by: 
100,196. 

No "assistance" was received 
from Mr. Roosevelt in that cam- 
paign, and the verdict of 1910 
was emphatically reversed. 

F); OF; 0; 
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Every Citizen in Jeopardy! 



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From the beginning of time the 
world has been agitated by the demand 
for the rights of man. In 1776 at Phila- 
delphia far-seeing men declared in a 
"document of independence" that man 
had certain inalienable rights. In 1787, 
after the war for political independence 
was over, a Constitution for the people of 
the United States was adopted. That 
document read into our organic law fun- 
damental principles of human liberty es- 
tablished in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and the people of the United 
States at that time made a covenant with 
every individual in the United States that 
the people would not, through their sov- 
ereign power, take from him his rights 
as an individual. 

For the first time in the history of this 
nation the principle upon which this gov- 
ernment was founded, that the individual 
has certain rights — those of life, liberty, 
the pursuit of happiness and the owner- 
ship of property — which the people will 
not take from him, is assailed. One of 



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2 

the candidates for the presidential office 
— Mr. Roosevelt — on the 21st day of 
February, 1912, at Columbus, advanced 
the revolutionary doctrine that these 
rights of the individual could be taken 
away by popular vote. 

Again and again he has asserted that 
doctrine, and it is a part of the platform 
of the newly-organized party which he 
has created. 

Every American citizen should under- 
stand the menace that lies in this pro- 
posal; that his right to worship God as 
he pleases, his right to a trial by jury, 
his right to own property, his right, when 
accused, to be confronted with his ac- 
cuser, are assailed by the doctrine known 
as the recall of judicial decisions; that 
the courts which have been established 
to protect him in his inalienable rights 
under the Constitution will have no pow- 
er to save him or what he may possess 
from being placed in jeopardy by a ma- 
jority vote of the community in which he 
lives. That such power rests with the 
people in other nations is no reason why 
it should be established in free America, 
and it is just the reason why it should 
not be. This nation came into being for 
the very purpose of providing a refuge 
from the tyranny of a sovereign. The 
tyranny of a pure democracy is equally 
abhorrent. 




TAFT MUST WIN!" 



History repeats itself. 

In 1892 the platform of the Demo- 
cratic party denounced a protective 
tariff as "unconstitutional." It does 
so again in 1912. 

In 1892 a member of the Wilson 
family was large in the public eye 
as an effective advocate of free 
trade. Once again, in 1912, a mem- 
ber of the Wilson family is a candi- 
date on a free trade platform. 

In 1892 there was a general spirit 
of unrest and the business men of 
the country forgot their duty to 
themselves, and even d o u b te d 
whether their prosperity was due to 
the Republican policy of Protection. 

RESULT— The election of a 
Democratic candidate for President, 






the adoption of the WILSON Free 
Trade Tariff— a Panic that shatter- 
ed business, dissipated capital, de- 
graded labor, and presented an ob- 
ject lesson in practical economics, 
which it has taken the country 
twenty years to forget. 

IF YOU HAVE NOT FOR- 
GOTTEN THE PANIC OF 1893 
YOURSELF, HELP US TO RE- 
MIND OTHERS. 

Why not point out to your friends 
or employees that the question is 
not one of "minimum wage" under 
a free trade tariff; but of a maxi- 
mum wage under a protective tariff? 

WHY NOT ASSIST US TO DO 
IT? 

To assure the maximum wage and 
guard the country from a flood of 
minimum-wage imports — 

TAFT MUST WIN. 



Bryan Still The Issue 



BRYAN dominated the Demo- 
cratic National Convention. 

BRYAN wrote the Democratic 
Platform. 

BRYAN'S influence nominated 
Wilson. 

BRYAN has convictions. Wilson 
has none that he has not recanted. 

BRYAN never recants. 

BRYAN would be Wilson's en- 
tire cabinet. 

BRYAN'S influence would domi- 
nate Wilson's administration as he 
did the Democratic Convention. 

BRYAN would use the power of 
the government to promote his pet 
fallacies — adopted by Wilson. 

A Republican vote cast for either 
Wilson or Roosevelt in the coming 
election is a vote for 

BRYAN!!! 





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Free Trade vs. Protection, 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 

We reaffirm our belief in a protective 
tariff. The Republican tariff policy has 
been of the greatest benefit to the coun- 
try, developing our resources, diversify- 
ing our industries and protecting our 
workmen against competition with cheap- 
er labor abroad, thus establishing for our 
wage-earners the American standard of 
living. 



DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 



We declare it to be a fundamental 
principle of the Democratic party that 
the Federal Government under the Con- 
stitution has no right or power to im- 
pose or collect tariff duties except for 
the purposes of revenue, and we demand 
that the collection of such taxes shall 
be limited to the necessities of govern- 
ment honestly and economically admin- 
istered. 



Revenue Tariff 
"Free Trade." 



is 



Any man of average intelligence could 
draw a tariff bill that would produce reve- 
nue more than sufficient to meet all the 
expenses of the national government. The 
only problem would be to make the du- 
ties imposed so low that importation 
would be encouraged, yet high enough to 
produce the necessary revenue for the 
support of government; for it is obvious 
that, if all duties were so high that they 
were prohibitive, there would be no im- 
ports, and, hence, no revenue. It is 
equally plain that, if the duties were 
too low, the revenue produced by them 
would be insufficient. To discover the 
mean between these extremes is the only 
problem of a "tariff for revenue" or "free 
trade" tariff. 

Now, if the tariff be regulated merely 
to encourage importation and get reve- 
nue, and nothing is done to encourage 
exports, it is patent that the balance of 
trade must soon set against any country 
which adopts that policy, for the govern- 
ment has added its own weight to the 
adverse end of the tilting board. If the 
balance of trade turns against us, ex- 



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ports of gold must follow to pay that 
balance, and national impoverishment en- 
sues as surely as result treads on the 
heels of cause. 

To confuse the issue Democratic news- 
papers are contending in protectionist 
districts that a tariff for revenue is not 
a free trade tariff. On the other hand, 
the frank free trader argues that the Law 
of Supply and Demand should be left 
free to work itself out as a decree of 
Providence with which it is futile, if not 
impious to contend. 

Supply and Demand is a law of trade 
and commerce, as beneficent, when guid- 
ed by the mind of man, as it is often cruel 
and brutal, when left to play like the un- 
controlled elements of nature. 

A protective tariff seeks to guide, con- 
trol and harness that law to the pur- 
poses of human need and endeavor. Its 
fruitful application involves expert knowl- 
edge and economic study. Such applica- 
tion cannot, in the nature of the case, 
be made by the average voter; but an en- 
lightened body politic is not likely to be- 
come a body impolitic. It can and should 
declare that the laws of self-interest and 
self-protection are higher laws than that 
of supply and demand. 

The plain issue between the Republi- 
can and Democratic parties is a regula- 
tive, protective, scientific tariff on the one 
hand and a "tariff for revenue" or "free 
trade" tariff on the other. 



Wilson's Doctrine. 

Extract from speech of Woodrow Wil- 
son, Democratic candidate for President, 
August 15, 1912: "If prosperity is not to 
be checked in this country, we must 
broaden our borders and make conquest 
of the markets of the world. That is the 
reason that America is so deeply inter- 
ested in the question of the merchant 

marine and that is also the reason 

why America is so much interested in 
breaking down, wherever it is possible 
without danger, that dam against which 
all the tides of our prosperity have 
banked up — that great dam that runs 
around all our coasts, and which we call 
the protective tariff. I would prefer to 
call it the restrictive tariff. I would pre- 
fer to call it the tariff that holds us back. 
I would prefer to call it the tariff that 
hems us in, the tariff that chokes us, the 
tariff that smothers us, because the great 
unmatched energy of America is now 
waiting for a field greater than America 
itself in which to prove that Americans 
can take care of themselves." 



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10 

Taft's Doctrine. 

(From Taft's Speech of Acceptance.) 
"During this administration everythin 
that has been possible has been don 
to increase our foreign trade, and unde 
the Payne bill the maximum and mini 
mum clause furnished the opportunity fo 
removing discriminations in that trade 
so that the statistics show that our ex 
ports and imports reached for the year 
ending July 1, 1912, a higher figure than 
ever before in the history of the coun- 
try. Our imports for the last fiscal year 
ending July 1, 1912, amounted to $1,853 
426,174 and our exports to $2,049,320,199, 
or a total of $3,857,648,262. If there were 
added to this the business done with 
Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, 
the sum total of our foreign trade would 
considerably exceed $4,000,000,000. Tfie 
excess of our exports over imports is 
$550,795,914. Manufactures exported dur- 
ing the year 1912 exceed $1,000,000,000 
and surpass the previous record. These 
figures seem to show that' the business is 
large enough to produce prosperity, and 
the fact is that it has done so." 



WHERE IS THE "CHOKING AND 
SMOTHERING?" 



11 



Taft Right — Wilson Wrong. 



That Taft is right and Wilson 
wrong the facts presented by the 
President and the statistics that es- 
tablish the great prosperity of the 
country would seem to prove beyond 
question. 

This should not surprise — as the 
issue is one between the president 
of a university, and the President of 
a vast republic — the doctrinaire 
against the man of affairs. 

LOOK AT THESE FIGURES. 

The table which follows, showing 
the increase in the wealth of the 
country in the last decade, was com- 
piled from the Statistical Abstract 
of the United States, issued by the 
Bureau of Statistics at Washington ; 
the bulletins of the U. S. Census 
Bureau; and the Monthly Summary 
of Commerce and Finance, issued 
by the Bureau of Statistics at Wash- 
ington for June, 1912. 



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Population 

Wealth 

Savings Banks' Deposits 

Postal Receipts 

*Capital invested in Manufacturing 

*Wages and Salaries paid in Manufactur 

ing 

♦Products of Manufacturing 

♦Materials consumed in Manufacturing . . 
♦Persons employed in Manufacturing. 

Value of farm lands 

Value of farm buildings 

Value of farm implements and machinery 

Exports 

Farm value of corn produced 

" " wheat produced 

" ** oats produced 

" ** cotton produced 

Value of cotton seed 

" " horses 

** " milch cows 

" " sheep 

** " hogs 

" * farm animals 

Total value on the farm of farn 

products 

Total production of coal in long tons. . . . 
Total production of pig iron in long tons 
Production of petroleum in gallons 



* 1899-1909. 

If the "dam against which all our t 



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13 



1900. 

■75,994.575 

$88,517,806,775 

2,389,719,954 

102,354,579 

8,975,256,000 

2,726,045,110 

13,004,400,143 

6,575,851,000 

5,076,883 

13,058,007,995 

3,566,639,496 

749,775,970 

1,394,483,082 

751,220,034 

323,515,177 

208,669,233 

438,280,000 

77,550,000 

896,513,217 

514,812,106 

122,665,913 

185,472,321 

2,228,123,124 

4,717,069,973 

240,789,310 

13,789,242 

2,672,062,218 



1910. 

92,174,515 

$137,000,000,000 

4,070,486,247 

224,128,658 

18,428,270,000 

4,365,612,851 

20,672,051,870 

12,141,790,878 

7,405,313 

28,475,674,169 

6,325,451,528 

1,265,149,783 

1,744,984,720 

1,384,817,000 

561,051,000 

408,388,000 

820,320,000 

142,860,000 

2,083,588,195 

738,352,066 

234,664,528 

409,414,568 

4,925,173,610 

8,694,000,000 

447,853,909 

27,303,567 

8,801,354,016 



f prosperity have banked up" — banks 



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14 

The "New York Evening Post," Au- 
gust 27, 1912, publishes columns of tele- 
grams from business men in all parts of 
the country heralding prosperity. 

TO CHECK PROSPERITY— 
ELECT WILSON. 

From President Taft's Speech of Acceptance. 

"If the result of the election were to 
put the Democrats completely in control 
of all branches of the Government, then 
we should look for the reduction of duties 
upon all those articles the manufacture of 
which need protection, and may antici- 
pate a serious injury to a large part of 
our manufacturing industry. We would 
not have to wait for actual legislation 
on this subject; the very prospect of 
Democratic success when its policy to- 
ward our great protected industries be- 
came understood, would postpone indefi- 
nitely the coming of prosperity and tend 
to give us a recurrence of the hard times 
that we had in the decade between 1890 
and 1897. The Democratic platform de- 
clares protection to be unconstitutional, 
although it has been the motive and pur- 
pose of most tariff bills since 1789, and 



15 

thus indicates as clearly as possible the 
intention to depart from a protective pol- 
icy at once. It is true the Democratic 
platform says that the change to the pol- 
icy of a revenue tariff is to be made in 
such a way as not to injure industry. 
This is utterly impossible when we are 
on a protective basis; and it is conclus- 
ively shown to be so by the necessary 
effect of bills already introduced and 
passed by the Democratic House for the 
purpose of making strides toward a reve- 
nue tariff. It is now more than 15 years 
since the people of this country have 
had an experience in such a change as 
that which the coming in of the Demo- 
cratic Party would involve. It ought to 
be brought home to the people as clearly 
as possible that a change of economic 
policy, such as that which is deliberately 
proposed in the Democratic platform, 
would halt many of our manufacturing 
enterprises and throw many wage-earners 
out of employment, would injure much 
the home markets which the farmers now 
enjoy for their products, and produce 
a condition of suffering among the peo- 
ple that no reforming legislation could 
neutralize or mitigate. 



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16 

ROOSEVELT THE CREATURE OF 
SOCIALISM. 



The leading Socialist paper of New 
York says: 

"The entrance of Roosevelt with a radi- 
cal platform, involving practically every- 
thing popularly known as 'state social- 
ism/ is too palpable to permit us to 
make any mistake about the outlook for 
the present campaign. There is abso- 
lutely no doubt that Theodore's platform 
will attract thousands, possibly hundreds 
of thousands, of voters whose ballots 
would have been cast for the socialist 
candidates had Theodore not entered the 
field in this manner. 

"We shall drive Roosevelt and his kind 
ever further along the path to socialism; 
we shall force them to paint their "red 
herrings" ever more red. We have driven 
them thus far, and we shall never let up 
until we have driven them either clear 
into socialism or back into their original 
position of antagonism toward us with- 
out mask or disguise. For well we know 
that in their 'state socialism' there is no 
permanent abiding place. Forward and 



17 

ever forward they must go before the 
growing irresistible pressure of socialism. 

"He has 'stolen our thunder.' So be it. 
We have lost nothing, but socialism has 
gained. It compels even its enemies to 
serve its purposes. While we work, we, 
too, can watch and wait, with that ter- 
rible patience which generations of cap- 
italist exploitation has made second na- 
ture to us. If we can not immediately 
rend the capitalist system to pieces, we 
can force its champions to do the pre- 
liminary tearing and shredding of the 
rotten old system, and it is not altogether 
an unpleasant sight to behold. We are 
not exactly the same brand of 'political 
party' as the others. There's a differ- 
ence. We can even forego votes to note 
the spectacle of the Bull Moose on the 
rampage in the capitalist china shop. 
Our business is the destruction of cap- 
italism by any means and every means — 
any old way that the damnable system 
can be weakened for the final sweeping 
off the earth suits us." — Vorwarts. 



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18 

The Verdict- "Incompetent" 



The Democratic Party Has Shown 

Its Incapacity to Govern 

This State. 



The Democratic State platform of 1910 
charged the administration of Governor 
Hughes with "gross extravagance." 

In his first annual message Governor 
Dix declared: "It is time for drastic re- 
form and retrenchment. Every unneces- 
sary avenue of expenditure should be 
closed. Every unnecessary special body 
should be abolished, and the work done 
by the constitutional officers of the 
State." 

That was PROMISE— this is the rec- 
ord of PERFORMANCE. 

There was no direct state tax during 
the administration of Governor Hughes. 

The direct state tax in 1911 was more 
than six million dollars. This year the 
rate is one mill on every dollar of as- 
sessed valuation in the state. That valua- 
tion is upwards of ten billions, and the 



19 

state tax will be upwards of ten mil- 
lion dollars. 

The total appropriations under Gover- 
nor Hughes in 1909 and 1910, including 
all interest and fixed charges, were $79,- 
567,021.37. 

The total appropriations under Gover- 
nor Dix in 1911 and 1912, including in- 
terest and fixed charges, were $95,440,- 
676.24. 

The appropriations for general ex- 
penses, exclusive of interest charges for 
1909 and 1910, under Governor Hughes 
were $74,814,937.49. 

The appropriations under Governor 
Dix in 1911 and 1912 for general ex- 
penses, exclusive of interest charges, 
were $84,643,663.57. 

It has been urged as an excuse that 
the assembly for 1912 was Republican. 
But the Senate was Democratic, and 
every appropriation bill was approved by 
the Democratic governor, whose admin- 
istration created the necessity and spent 
the money. 

The non-partisan Highway Commis- 



20 

sion, established by Governor Hughes 
and a Republican legislature, was abol- 
ished when the Democrats secured full 
control in 1911, and a partisan Demo- 
cratic commission was named in its stead. 

The expenses of elections were in- 
creased by half a million dollars a year 
to the state, counties and towns. 

A new Bureau of Conservation was es- 
tablished without result and with in- 
creased expenditure. 

The useless office of Fire Marshal was 
created. 

Inexperienced and incompetent men in 
new positions helped to make a longer 
pay-roll necessary in every department of 
state government. 

RESULT. — Increased appropriations 
and new taxes, including the return to 
the direct state tax abolished by the Re- 
publicans in 1906. 

As proof of this, glance at the following 
table, showing the increased expenditures 
in the various boards and departments 
of the state administration under Gov- 
ernor Dix as compared with the expendi- 



21 



tures of the last Republican administra- 
tion of 1909 and 1910, which the Demo- 
cratic platform declared to be "grossly 
extravagant": [See table, pages 22 and 
23.] 

Perhaps some few of these increases 
were unavoidable; and as to such in- 
creases the Republicans make no com- 
plaint. 

As to the increased payrolls in every 
department of the State administration, 
however, the Republican party is justi- 
fied in retorting the charge of "gross 
extravagance," and points to its own rec- 
ord, by contrast, as one of efficiency and 
economy. 

The Republican party appeals to the 
people this fall to close the doors of the 
State Treasury to the democracy. 

We are confident that the people will 
listen to that appeal if the Democratic 
record of the last two years is placed 
before them. 

WILL YOU HELP US TO PLACE 
IT THERE? 



Hughes — 

Officer or Total for 

Department. 1909-1910. 

Governor $186,395.50 

Secretary of State . . 586,624.06 

Comptroller 620,160.13 

Treasurer 63,720.00 

Legislative 3,213,846.75 

Judicial 3,307,160.10 

Educational 16,747,217.04 

Excise Department 837,599.59 

Health Department 328,782.51 

Labor Department 426,949.79 

Elections 394,785.07 

Public Service Commission 855,282.75 

Health Officer, Port of N.Y. 302,930.00 

Board of Tax Comm'rs .... 190,385.63 

Weights and Measures 35,270.00 

Agricultural 3,492,523.73 

Curative 14,933,144.81 

Charitable 6,498,424.39 

Public Buildings Dept 433,723.03 

Public Buildings Const'ns. 210,224.72 

Conservation 1,196,877.43 

Purchase Mineral Lands.. 

Parks, Monuments, Etc . . . 287,007.04 

Fire Marshal 

Public Works Department. 399,945.96 

Highways Department 6,552,105.02 

Banking Department 292,968.90 

Insurance Department 661,591.13 

Total General Expenses. $74,814,937.49 
Total Appropriations (in- 
cluding interest) 79,567,021,37 



23 

Dix— 

Total for Increase 
1911-1912. 

$196,553.90 $10,158.48 

762,638.30 176,014.24 

924,878.33 304,718.20 

77,034.63 13,314.63 

3,459,750.00 245,903.25 

3,526,785.31 219,625.21 

18,632,043.19 1,884,826.15 

900,464.61 62,865.02 

572,965.99 244,183.48 

706,504.37 279,554.58 

741,612.05 346,828.98 

969,537.32........ 114,254.57 

590,150.00 287,220.00 

271,930.11 81,544.37 

51,800.00 16,530.00 

4,635,381.55 1,142,857.82 

15,885,443.84 952,299.03 

7,114,348.59 615,924.20 

645,540.08 211,817.15 

2,265,050.00 2,054,825.28 

1,484,386.29 237,508.86 

225,000.00 225,000.00 

638,965.12 351,958.08 

186,520.00 186,520.00 

463,887.88 63,941.22 

7,668,066.83 1,115,961.81 

412,498.33 119,529.43 

870,130.00 208,538.87 

$84,643,663.57 . . . .$9,828,726.08 

95,440,676.24 15,873,654.87 



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727 Seventh Ate. 

New York. 



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The Republican Party 
The Preservative Force. 

If you have read the contents 
of this booklet, you will appreciate 
that there is something worth 
fighting for in this election, some- 
thing that elevates politics and 
arouses patriotism. 

The republican party has been 
the party of Union, Protection and 
Common Sense. 

It is yet! 

In the prsesent crisis it appeals 
with confidence to the intelligence 
and patriotism of the voters. 

It appeals to you, personally, 
for your moral and financial sup- 
port. 






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THE TRUTH 

ABOUT 

Those Delegates 



ISSUED BY 

REPUBUGAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE 

TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY 



The Washington Times, a daily news- 
paper owned by Frank Munsey, an ar- 
dent Roosevelt supporter, in its issue of 
June 9, 1912, contains the following 
statement showing the real f ornd&tion 
of most of the Roosevelt contests: 

On the day when Roosevelt formally an- 
nounced that he was a candidate something 
over a hundred delegates had actually been 
selected. When Senator Dixon took charge 
of the campaign a tabulated showing of dele- 
gates selected to date would have looked 
hopelessly one-sided. Moreover, a number of 
Southern States had called their conventions 
tor early aates and there was no chance to 
develop the real Roosevelt strength in the 
great Northern States till later. For nsycho- 
logicil effect as a move in practical politics 
it was necessary for the Roosevelt people to 
start contests on these early Tafi selections 
in order that a tabulation of delegate strength 
could be put out that would show Roosevelt 
holding a good hand. In the game a table 
showing Taft 150, Roosevelt 19, contested 
one, would not be very much calculated to 
inspire confidence, whereas, one showing Taft 
23, Roosevelt 19, contested 127, looked very 
different. That is the whole story of the 
larger number of Southern contests that were 
started early in the game. It was never ex- 
pected that they would be taken very seri- 
ously. They served a useful purpose, and now 
the national committee is deciding them in 
favor of Taft in most cases without real 
division. 






THE TRUTH 

ABOUT 

THOSE DELEGATES. 

Here are the facts in relation to the 
contested seats in the Republican na- 
tional convention. It is a summary of 
a detailed statement going carefully into 
all of the case*. This statement is signed 
by Mr. Victor Rosewater, chairman of 
the former Republican national com- 
mittee; by Mr. T. H. Devine, of Colorado, 
chairman of the committee on creden- 
tials of the Republican national conven- 
tion, and by Mr. Charles D. Hilles, 
chairman of the present Republican na- 
tional committee. 

The total number of delegates sum- 
moned to the Republican national con- 
vention of 1912 under its call was 1,078, 
with 540 necessary to a choice. Mr. Taft 
had 561 votes on the first and only ballot 
and was declared the nominee. 

There were 252 delegates to the Re- 
publican national convention of 1912 
whose seats were contested; 238 of these 
were Taft delegates whom Roosevelt 
people desired to unseat and 14 were 
Roosevelt delegates whom Taft people 



sought to unseat. In accordance .with 
the rules and long-established usage of 
the party, such contests are, in the first 
instance, heard by the Republican na- 
tional committee, consisting of one 
member from each State and Territory. 
This committee decides which names 
shall go upon the temporary roll of 
the convention. 

It must be borne in mind that the na- 
tional committee which passed upon the 
contests of 1912 was the committee 
chosen in 1908 when Roosevelt was the 
leader of the party, at a time when his 
influence dominated the convention. 

When a temporary organization of the 
convention has been effected, there is 
elected a committee on credentials, con- 
sisting of one member from each State 
and Territory, to which an appeal lies 
from the decision of the national com- 
mittee, and from the decision of the com- 
mittee on credentials a contest may be 
brought to the convention itself. 

Among the delegates whose seats were 
contested were 74 delegates at large 
from the 14 States of Alabama, Arizona, 
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missis- 
sippi, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and 
Washington. The Missouri case was de- 
cided by the national committee unani- 



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mously in favor of the Roosevelt dele- 
gates, and no appeal was taken to the 
committee on credentials. 

The Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, 
Louisiana, and Virginia cases were de- 
cided against Roosevelt contestants by 
practically unanimous votes of the na- 
tional committee, and were not appealed 
to the committee on credentials. 

In the Kentucky case there were a few 
votes in the national committee against 
the Taft delegates at large retaining 
their seats, but the majority in their 
favor was overwhelming, and no appeal 
was taken by the Roosevelt people to' 
the committee on credentials. 

In the Georgia case the Taft dele- 
gates sustained the right to their seats 
by a practically unanimous vote in the 
national committee, and in the com- 
mittee on credentials the vote was en- 
tirely unanimous. 

In the Indiana case the seats of the 
Taft delegates at large were confirmed 
by the unanimous vote of the national 
committee, the member from that State 
not voting. In the committee on cre- 
dentials 13 votes only were cast in favor 
of seating the Roosevelt contestants. 

In Mississippi the Taft delegates at 
large established the right to their seats 
by the unanimous vote of the national 






committee, and also by the practically 
unanimous vote of the credentials com- 
mittee. 

There were only four States — Arizona, 
Michigan, Texas, and Washington, hav- 
ing in all 28 delegates, including six dis- 
trict delegates from the State of Wash- 
ington — where the contests were at all 
worthy of the name, and in none of the 
14 States did the contestants at large 
Turing the matter to a record vote in 
the convention, and no roll call was de- 
manded in any such case. 

The seats of 178 district delegates 
"Svere contested. In these congressional 
districts Taft contests were brought in 
the fourth California, the eleventh Ken- 
tucky, the fifth Missouri, and the third 
-and fifteenth Texas districts, involving 
10 seats. The Taft delegates from the 
fourth California district were given 
their seats, and one Taft delegate from 
the eleventh Kentucky district was 
seated. The other seven seats were de- 
cided in favor of the Roosevelt claim- 
ants. 

In no other convention was so much 
care exercised or pains taken or so much 
time devoted to the careful investiga- 
tion and fair determination of contests. 
Nq delegate was permitted to vote up- 
on any contest affecting the right to his 






own seat. In no other convention were 
there ever presented, manifestly for the 
deception of the public, so many wholly 
unwarranted and unjustified contests. 
There were filed contests against 238 
Taft delegates, but in two cases only, 
involving four delegates — two from Cali- 
fornia and two from the ninth district 
of Alabama — was there a roll call de- 
manded in the convention. In a very 
large number of cases the right of the 
Taft delegates was affirmed by unani- 
mous consent of the convention, and in 
others by a viva voce vote, no roll call 
being demanded. 

Fraudulent Roosevelt Contests. 
In the four Southern States — Virginia,, 
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida — where 
practically complete sets of Roosevelt 
contesting delegates were named, the: 
alleged conventions which named them, 
met from two to three months after the 
regular Republican organizations in 
those States had called their conven- 
tions and duly elected Taft delegates to- 
the national convention. That these- 
contests were based upon unworthy mo- 
tives and were devised for the sole pur- 
pose of deceiving the public and making, 
trouble for Taft, is apparent from the 
fact that the regularly elected Taft dele- 
gates in every case were seated by a. 




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practically unanimous vote, the Roose- 
velt members of the committees join- 
ing with the Taft members in the votes. 
In Alabama, for example, the regular 
conventions were held in February and 
March, the State convention at Birming- 
ham and the district conventions in their 
respective districts, while the Roosevelt 
conventions, both State and district, 
were all held in Birmingham, May 11. 
The regular conventions in Georgia 
were held generally in February or the 
early part of March. The. Roosevelt 
conventions were all held May 17 or 18. 
The Taft conventions in Florida were 
all held February 6, while the Roose- 
velt conventions were all held May 18, 
more than three months later, except 
one, which met April 30. The regularly 
elected Taft delegates from Virginia 
at large were chosen in a State con- 
vention which met March 12. The 
Roosevelt delegates at large were named 
at a mass meeting, held without any 
party authority whatever on May 16. 
The other Roosevelt delegates from this 
State were chosen in every case substan- 
tially two months after the regular Taft 
delegates had been elected. It is need- 
less to say that all these southern con- 
tests were financed by money which 
came from the North. 






A careful review of the law and the 
evidence which was presented to the na- 
tional committee and the committee on 
credentials will satisfy anyone who is 
desirous of knowing the truth, that these 
contests were decided strictly on their 
merits. 

There were instituted against 238 of 
the delegates regularly elected for Taft, 
contests on behalf of Roosevelt. These 
contests were avowedly instigated not 
for the purpose of really securing seats 
in the convention, not for the purpose 
of adducing evidence which would lead 
any respectable court to entertain the 
contests, but for the purpose of deceiv- 
ing the public into the belief that Mr. 
Roosevelt had more votes than he really 
had, while the conventions and primaries 
were in progress for the selection of 
delegates. This is not only a necessary 
inference from the character of the con- 
tests, but it was boldly avowed by the 
chief editor of the newspapers owned 
by Mr. . Munsey, who has been Mr. 
Roosevelt's chief financial and news- 
paper supporter. 

The two hundred and thirty-eight con- 
tests were reduced by abandonment, 
formal or in substance, to seventy-four. 
The very fact of these 164 frivolous con- 
tests itself reflects upon the genuineness 




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and validity of the remainder. The sev- 
enty-four delegates include six at large 
from Arizona, 4 at large from Kentucky, 
4 at large from Indiana, 6 at large from 
Michigan, 8 at large from Texas, and 8 
at large from Washington, and also two 
district delegates each from the 9th Ala- 
bama, the 5th Arkansas, the 13th In- 
diana, the 7th, 8th and 11th Kentucky, 
the 3rd Oklahoma, the 2nd Tennessee, 
and from each of nine districts, the 1st, 
2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th 
of Texas. 

Here, in brief, is the real story — and 
the facts — in the different cases: 

CONTESTED DELEGATES-AT- 
LARGE. 

Arizona. 

In the Arizona convention there were 
93 votes. All the delegates — six in num- 
ber — were to be selected at large. The 
counties were entitled to select their 
delegates through their county com- 
mittee, or by primary. In one county, 
Maricopa, a majority of the committee 
decided to select its delegates, and a 
minority to have a primary. In other 
counties there were some contests, and 
the State committee, following the usage 
of the National Committee, gave a hear- 
ing- to all contestants in order to make 






up the temporary roll. There was a. 
clear majority of the Taft delegates 
among the uncontested delegates. The 
committee made up the temporary roll,, 
and then there was a bolt, 64 remaining 
in the hall, and 25 withdrawing there- 
from. The case of the Taft majority- 
was so clear that it is difficult to under- 
stand why a contest was made. 

Indiana. 

In Indiana the four Taft delegates at 
large were elected in a State convention. 
to which Marion County, in which In- 
dianapolis is situated, was entitled to- 
128 votes. A primary was held in In- 
dianapolis, at which Taft polled 6,000.. 
and Roosevelt 1,400 votes. This gave 
Taft 106 delegates in the State conven- 
tion from Marion County, and if they 
were properly seated, the control of the 
convention by a large majority was con- 
ceded to Taft. Attempt was made to 
impeach the returns from Marion Coun- 
ty by charges of fraud and repeating. 
These charges were of a general char- 
acter, without specifications, except as, 
to one ward, out of fifteen w'ards, and 
then the impeaching witness admitted 
he could not claim fraud enough to- 
change the result in that ward. The Na- 
3J9lj; ipiijM. uodn 'aa^iimuo;} jeuoi}. 



10 

v/ere fifteen anti-Taft men, rejected the 
Uoosevelt contestants and gave the Taft 
•delegates their seats by a unanimous 
vote. Senator Borah and Mr. Frank B. 
Kellogg, both Roosevelt men, made 
speeches in explaining the votes in 
which they said that the case turned 
wholly on the Marion County primary, 
r.nd as there was no evidence to impeach 
the result certified, the title of the Taft 
delegates was clear. This is the con- 
vention whose proceedings called forth 
such loud charges of theft and fraud 
from Mr. Roosevelt. 



Kentucky. 

In Kentucky a contest was filed 
against only three of the four delegates 
at large. The fourth Taft delegate's 
seat was uncontested. The three con- 
testants admitted they were not elected 
by the convention which sent the Taft 
delegates, or by any other. They only 
contended that if the Roosevelt forces 
had had a majority, they would have 
been elected. There were 2,356 dele- 
gates summoned to the convention by 
its call. There were 449 of these whose 
seats were contested. If all of these had 
been conceded to Roosevelt, it would 
have made the Roosevelt vote 297 votes 
less than a majority. The appeal to 



11 

the committee on credentials from the 
decision of the National Committee was 
abandoned, as it ought to have been. 

Michigan. 

In Michigan the State convention had 
in it about 1,200 delegates. There were 
only two counties in dispute or contest. 
One was Wayne County, in which De- 
troit is situated, and the other was Cal- 
houn County. The evidence left no 
doubt that the Taft men carried Wayne 
County by a very large majority, but 
it was immaterial whether this was true 
or not, because leaving out both Wayne 
County and Calhoun County, the only 
counties in contest, the Taft delegates 
outnumbered by several hundred the 
Roosevelt delegates, and they had a clear 
majority out of the total number of votes 
that should have been in the convention. 
The contest was so weak as to hardly 
merit recital. 

Texas. 

In Texas there were 249 counties, of 
which 4 have no county government. 
The 245 counties under the call of the 
convention were allowed to have some- 
thing over 1,000 delegates representing 
them, who were given authority to cast 
248 votes. Of the 245 counties, there 
were 99 counties in which the total Re- 











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12 



publican vote was but 2,000, in 14 of 
which there were no Republican voters, 
in 27 of which there were less than ten 
each, and in none of which was there 
any Republican organization, and in none 
of which had a primary or convention 
been held. It was shown that Colonel 
Cecil Lyon, to whom had been as- 
signed as referee the disposition of 
the patronage of the National Repub- 
lican administration for ten years in 
the State, had been in the habit of con- 
trolling the Republican State Conven- 
tion by securing from two Federal office- 
holders in each of these 99 counties a 
certificate granting a proxy to Colonel 
Lyon, or a friend of his, to represent 
the county, as if regularly conferred by 
a Republican county organization. The 
National Committee and the Committee 
on Credentials and the Convention, after 
the fullest investigation, decided that 
these 99 counties in which the Repub- 
lican vote was so small, and in which 
there was no Republican party, no con- 
vention, no primary, no organization, 
was not the proper source for a proxy 
to give a vote equal to that to be cast 
by the other 146 counties in which there 
was a Republican organization, and in 
which primaries or conventions were 
held. The two committees therefore 



13 



held such ninety-nine proxies to be ille- 
gal and not the basis of proper repre- 
sentation. The two tribunals who heard 
the case decided that they should deduct 
the 99 votes from the total of 245 and 
give the representation to those who 
controlled the majority of the remainder. 
The remainder was 152 votes, and out of 
that the Taft men had carried 89 coun- 
ties, having 90 votes. This gave to che 
Taft men a clear majority in the State 
convention, and with it 8 delegates at 
large. 

WASHINGTON. 

The contest in Washington turned on 
the question whether the Taft delegates 
appointed by the county committee in 
King County, in which Seattle is situ- 
ated, were duly elected to the conven- 
tion, or whether a primary, which was 
subsequently held, and at which Roose- 
velt delegates were elected, was prop- 
erly called, so that its result was legal. 
Under the law, the county committee 
had the power to decide whether it would 
select the delegates directly or should 
call a primary. In some counties of 
the State, one course was pursued, and 
in other counties the other. In King 
County the committee consisted of 250 
men, the majority of whom were for 





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Taft, and that majority, acting through 
its executive committee, selected the Taft 
delegates to the State convention. 
Meantime, the city council of Seattle 
had redistricted the city. It before had 
250 precincts. Now, substantially, the 
same territory was divided up into 381 
precincts. The chairman of the county 
committee was a Roosevelt man. He 
had been given authority by general res- 
olution to fill vacancies occurring in the 
committee. A general meeting of the 
committee had been held after the city 
council had directed the redistricting of 
the city, in which it was resolved, the 
chairman not dissenting, that represen- 
tatives could not be selected to fill the 
331 new precincts until an election was 
held in September, 1912. Thereafter, and 
in spite of this conclusion, the chairman 
assumed the right by his appointment to 
add to the existing committee 131 pre- 
cinct committeemen, and with these vot- 
ing in the committee, it is claimed that 
a primary was ordered. There was so 
much confusion in the meeting that this 
is doubtful. However, the fact is that 
the Taft men protested against any action 
by a committee so constituted, on the 
ground that the chairman had no author- 
ity to appoint the 131 new committee- 
men. They refused to take part in the 



15 

primary, and so did the La Folletie men. 
The newspapers reported the number of 
votes in the primary to be something 
over 3,000. The Roosevelt committee 
showed by affidavit the number to be 
6,000 out of a usual total Republican vote 
of 75,000. The action of the chairman 
of the committee in attempting to add 
131 precinct men to the old committee 
was of course beyond his power. The 
resolution authorizing him to fill va- 
cancies of course applied only to those 
places in the existing committee which 
became vacant after they had been filled, 
and clearly did not apply to 131 new pre- 
cincts. It could not in the nature of 
things apply to a change from the old 
system to a complete new system of pre- 
cincts created by the city council, be- 
cause if they were to be filled the en- 
tire number of 331 new precincts dif- 
ferent from the old must be filled. .One 
system could not be made into the 
other by a mere additional appointment 
of 131 committeemen. No lawyer will 
say that such action by the committee 
thus constituted was legal. Therefore 
the action which the lawful committee 
of 250 took in electing Taft delegates 
who made a majority in the State con- 
vention was the only one which could 
be recognized as valid. 







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CONTESTED DISTRICT DELE- 
GATES. 

ALABAMA. 

Ninth District. 

The 9th Alabama contest turned on 
the question whether the chairman of 
zl district committee had power to fill 
vacancies, whether a committeeman who 
had sent his resignation to take effect 
only in case he was not present, being 
present, should be prevented from act- 
ing as committeeman, and, third, on the 
identity of another committeeman. The 
written resolution under which the right 
•of the chairman to appoint to vacancies 
was claimed .showed on its face that the 
specific authority was written in in dif- 
ferent handwriting and with different 
-colored pencil between the lines. A 
number of affidavits were filed by com- 
mitteemen who were present when the 
resolution was passed, to show that the 
resolution contained no such authority. 
This gave rise to a question of fact upon 
-which a very large majority of both the 
National Committee and the Committee 
on Credentials held that the lead pencil 
insertion was a forgery, that the chair- 
man did not have the authority there- 
under to appoint to the vacancies and 
"therefore the action of his committee 






17 



was not valid. This made it necessary 
to reject the contestants. The com- 
mittee decided the two other issues of 
fact before them in favor of the Taft 
contention, although the first decision 
was conclusive. 

ARKANSAS. 

Fifth District. 

In the 5th Arkansas the question was 
one of the identity of one faction or the 
other as the Republican party. This 
convention followed the example of the 
convention of 1908 in holding that what 
was known as the Redding faction was 
not the Republican party, that it was a 
defunct organization, and had only 
acquired life at the end of each four 
years for the purpose of using it in the 
National Convention. The contestants 
were therefore rejected. It was shown 
that the other or Taft had been in active 
existence, as the Republican party, had 
nominated a local ticket and had run 
a candidate for Congress. 

CALIFORNIA. 

Fourth District. 

The 4th California presented this ques- 
tion: Under the State law, the delega- 
tion, two from each district, was elected 
on a general ticket, in a group of 26. 



18 



Each delegate might either express his 
presidential preference or agree to vote 
for the presidential candidate receiving 
the highest number of votes in the State. 
In the 4th district the two candidates 
from that district on the Taft ticket ex- 
pressed a preference for Taft, but did 
not agree to vote for the candidates 
having the highest State vote. These 
Taft delegates in the 4th district received 
a majority of 200 more than the Roose- 
velt delegates in that district. The offi- 
cial call for the Republican National 
Convention, in precisely the language 
used in the call for the 1908 and many 
previous conventions, forbade any law 
or the acceptance of any law which pre- 
vented the election of delegates by con- 
gressional districts. In other words, the 
State law was at variance with the call 
for the National Convention. The State 
law was invoked to enforce the State 
unit rule requiring the whole 26 dele- 
gates to be voted for all over the State, 
assigning two to each district on the 
tickets to abide the State-wide election, 
while the Republican National Conven- 
tion has insisted upon the unit of the 
district since 1880. That has been the 
party law. This convention recognized 
the party law and held it to be more 
binding than that of the State law, and 



19 



allowed the two delegates who had re- 
ceived in the 4th district a vote larger 
than their two opponents assigned to 
that district, to become delegates in the 
convention. This was clearly lawful, for 
a State has no power to limit or con- 
trol the basis of representation of a vol- 
untary national party in a National Con- 
vention. The fact that President Tafi 
by telegram approved all of the twenty- 
six delegates as representing him is said 
to be an estoppel against his claiming 
the election of two of those delegates 
in the fourth district. What is there 
inconsistent in his approving the can- 
didacy of all his delegates and the elec- 
tion of two of them? Why should he 
be thus estopped to claim that part of 
the law was inoperative because in con- 
flict with the call for the convention? 









INDIANA. 
Thirteenth District. 

In the 13th Indiana there was no ques- 
tion about the victory of the Taft men, 
because the temporary chairman repre- 
senting the Taft side was conceded to 
have been elected by one-half a vote 
more than the Roosevelt candidate. This 
one-half vote extended through the 
riotous proceedings, and although it was 
not as wide as a barn door, it was 



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20 



enough. The chairman put the ques- 
tion as to electing the Taft delegates, 
and after continuous objection, lasting 
three hours, declared the vote carried. 
The Roosevelt men thus prevented a 
roll call and then bolted. 

KENTUCKY. 
Seventh District. 

In the 7th Kentucky district the total 
vote of the convention was 145. There 
were contests from 4 counties involv- 
ing 95 votes. According to the rules of 
the party in Kentucky, where two sets 
of credentials are presented, those dele- 
gates whose credentials are approved 
by the county chairman are entitled to 
participate in the temporary organiza- 
tion. On the temporary roll the Taft 
chairman was elected by 98 votes and 47 
votes were cast for the Roosevelt can- 
didate. The committee on credentials 
was then appointed, consisting of one 
member named by each county delega- 
tion. The majority report of the com- 
mittee was adopted unanimously by the 
convention, no delegation whose seats 
were contested being permitted to vote 
on its own case. As soon as the ma- 
jority report of the credentials com- 
mittee had been adopted, the Roosevelt 
adherents bolted. There was not the 



21 



slightest reason for sustaining the con- 
test for Roosevelt delegates. 

KENTUCKY. 

Eighth District. 

The 8th Kentucky district was com- 
posed of 10 counties, having 163 votes, 
of which 82 were necessary to a choice. 
There was no contest in five of the 
counties, and although the Roosevelt 
men claimed that there was one in 
Spencer County, no contest was pre- 
sented against the seating of the regu- 
larly elected Taft delegates from that 
county. This gave the Taft delegates 
84 votes, or 2 more than were neces- 
sary for a choice. In other words, as- 
suming that the Roosevelt men were 
entitled to all the delegates from the 
counties in which they filed contests in 
the district convention, there remained 
a clear majority of uncontested dele- 
gates who voted for the Taft delegates 
to Chicago. 

OKLAHOMA. 

Third District. 

In the 3rd Oklahoma district the ques- 
tion of the validity of the seats of the 
delegates turned on the constitution of 
the congressional committee, which was 
made up of 12 Taft men and 7 Roose- 









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22 



velt men. The chairman, Cochran, was 
a Roosevelt man, and attempted to pre- 
vent the majority of the committee from 
taking action. The chairman was re- 
moved, and. another substituted, and 
thereupon the convention was duly 
called to order on the temporary roll 
prepared by the congressional com- 
mittee, which was made the permanent 
roll, and the two Taft delegates to 
Chicago were duly selected. Every 
county in the district had its represen- 
tation and vote in the regular conven- 
tion, and no person properly accredited 
as a delegate was excluded or debarred 
from participating in its proceedings. 
Cochran and his followers bolted after 
his deposition. Assuming that all the 
committee who went out with him had 
the right to act on the committee, it left 
the committee standing 12 for Taft and 
7 for Roosevelt, so it was simply a ques- 
tion whether a majority of the com- 
mittee had the right to control its action 
or a minority. The bolting convention 
which Cochran held was not attended by 
a majority of the duly elected delegates 
to the convention. It did not have the 
credentials from the various counties, 
and its membership was largely made 
up of bystanders who had not been duly 
accredited by any county in the district. 



23 

Its action was entirely without author- 
ity. 

TENNESSEE. 

Second District. 

In the 2nd Tennessee district there 
were 59 delegates uncontested out of 
a possible total of 108 in the convention. 
There were 49 contested. The Roose- 
velt contestants in the 49 refused to 
abide by the decision of the committee 
on credentials, and withdrew, leaving 59 
uncontested delegates. These 59 dele- 
gates, part of whom were Roosevelt 
men, remained in the convention, ap- 
pointed the proper committee, settled 
contests, and proceeded to select Taft 
delegates. There can be no question 
therefore about the validity of their title. 

TEXAS. 

First District. 

The only remaining districts are the 
nine districts from Texas. Of these, the 
first district was composed of 11 coun- 
ties, each county having one vote, ex- 
cept Cass County, which had two. The 
executive committee, composed of one 
representative from each county, made 
up the temporary roll, and in the con- 
tests filed from two counties, seated 
both delegates with one-half vote each. 





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24 

The convention elected the two Taft 
delegates, giving them 10% votes. Each 
county was represented in this vote. A 
minority representing 1% votes bolted 
the regular convention, and held a rump 
meeting. The National Committee by 
unanimous vote decided the contest in 
favor of the Taft delegates. 

Second District. 



In the 2nd Texas- district there were 
14 counties. Two counties were found 
not to have held conventions, and one 
county to have no delegate present. The 
convention was then constituted by the 
delegations that held regular credentials. 
The report of the committee on creden- 
tials was accepted upon roll call and then 
the representatives of five counties with- 
drew from the hall. The representatives 
of four of these counties held a rump 
convention. The regular convention 
remained in session several hours, ap- 
pointed the usual committees, which re- 
tired and made their reports, which 
were accepted, and elected two Taft 
delegates to the National Convention, 
and certified their election in due form 
to the National Committee, which with- 
out division being asked for, held them 
properly elected. 



25 



Fourth District. 

The 4th Texas district consists of five- 
counties, each having one vote in the 
district convention under the call. One 
county, Rains, chose an uncontested 
delegation, and that one was for Taft. 
The other four counties sent contesting 
delegations. The contesting delegations 
appeared before the congressional execu- 
tive committee to present their claims, 
but the committee arbitrarily refused to- 
hear anybody. Having exhausted every 
effort to secure a hearing the four con- 
testing delegations, together with the 
only uncontested delegation of the con- 
vention, withdrew to another place and 
held a convention and elected Taft dele- 
gates to the Chicago convention. The 
congressional convention which elected 
the Taft delegates was composed of 
more than a majority, and, indeed, of 
practically all the regularly elected dele- 
gates. The National Committee held 
the title of the Taft delegates to their 
seats valid by vhia voce vote without 
calling for a division. 

Fifth District. 

The 5th district of Texas is composed 
of Dallas, Ellis, Hill, Bosque and Rock- 
wall Counties. Dallas County cast more 
Republican votes than all the other 



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26 



counties of the district put together. 
The call for the Congressional conven- 
tion allowed each county to send not to 
exceed four delegates, but made no ref- 
erence to the basis of representation of 
the respective counties composing the 
district. There was a contest from Dal- 
las County, but the Taft delegates were 
seated. Taft delegates were seated on 
the temporary roll from two counties, 
and Roosevelt delegates from the three 
counties, and the representation in the 
convention was fixed at one vote for 
each county, without regard to the 
number of delegates in the convention 
or the number of Republican votes cast 
in such county. A minority report of 
the district committee was presented, 
protesting against the ratio of repre- 
sentation adopted. The chairman of the 
convention objected to the presentation 
of this minority report. Failing in this 
he abandoned the platform and left the 
hall. 

The convention thereupon elected a 
new chairman and a new secretary, ap- 
pointed a committee on credentials, 
which recommended the seating of the 
Taft delegates from Hill County, and 
the adoption of the minority report of 
the district committee as to the basis 
of the representation in the convention. 



27 



Both these recommendations were 
adopted, and Taft delegates to the na- 
tional convention were thereupon elected 
by a vote of eight to three. The Roose- 
velt men thereafter retired to the south 
end of the hall, where they organized a 
meeting, at which it was claimed the 
Roosevelt delegates to the national con- 
vention were elected. The Republican 
vote for the district for 1908 was as fol- 
lows: Dallas County, 2,068; Ellis, 594; 
Hill, 414; Bosque, 266; Rockwall, 38. 
Both the National Committee and the 
committee on credentials sustained the 
Taft delegates. 

Seventh District. 

The 7th Congressional district of 
Texas is composed of the following 
counties: Anderson, Chambers, Galves- 
ton, Houston, Liberty, Polk, San Ja- 
cinto and Trinity. Polk, San Jacinto 
and Trinity were without proper party 
organization. In Texas, county chair- 
men must be elected by the voters in 
each party. No such election was held 
in any of these three counties. In two 
of them Colonel Lyon assumed to ap- 
point chairmen, which he had no right 
to do. Lyon himself had classed these 
three counties as unorganized and with- 
out party organization. 



28 



The convention met in Galveston. The 
executive committee met prior to the 
meeting of the convention to make up 
the temporary roll of delegates. The 
executive committee had before it the 
question of having the three unorganized 
counties represented in the convention. 
The executive committee refused to rec- 
ognize them. When this action was 
taken by the executive committee, a dele- 
gate from Houston County, and the al- 
leged representatives from the three un- 
organized counties withdrew from the 
meeting and proceeded to organize an- 
other convention, and upon this is based 
the contest, which was rejected by both 
committees, the National Committee and 
the credentials committee. 
Eighth District. 

In the 8th Congressional convention 
a split occurred over the majority and 
minority reports of the executive com- 
mittee as to the temporary roll. The 
Roosevelt followers controlled the exe- 
cutive committee, but did not have a 
majority in the convention which adopted 
the minority report and gave Taft Sy 2 
votes and Roosevelt 2]/ 2 votes. This re- 
sulted in the election of the Taft dele- 
gates, who were seated by both the Na- 
tional Committee and the credentials 
committee. 



29 



Ninth District. 

In the 9th district the district com- 
mittee was called by Mr. Speaker, a 
member of the committee, and not by 
the chairman. The chairman refused to 
convene the committee because he 
claimed that all the delegates from 
Texas to the National Convention must 
be elected in the State convention, that 
Colonel Lyon his superior had thus di- 
rected him. The district committee was 
called. Seven members attended the 
meeting. The district convention was 
called on the 15th of May. Eleven coun- 
ties out of the 15 responded to the call 
and took part in the convention which 
elected Taft delegates. Three counties 
were not represented, and in one of these 
there was no election. After this con- 
vention had been called the chairman of 
the district committee changed his mind 
and called a meeting of the committee 
for April 17th. This committee called 
a Congressional convention to be held 
on the 18th of May. But there was no 
publication of the call, which had to be 
thirty days before the convention, until 
April 21st. The Taft convention seems 
therefore to have been duly and regularly 
convened, while the Roosevelt conven- 
tion was not. The Taft delegates were 
seated. 



30 



Tenth District. 

In the 10th district the decision turned 
largely upon the bad faith with which 
two members of the district committee 
voted in the seating of delegates and 
upon the bad faith with which one of 
them used the proxy intrusted to him. 
The Taft delegates in this case bolted 
and left the hall and immediately in the 
same building organized another con- 
vention, which consisted of delegates 
from six counties. Proceedings were 
regularly held, a permanent organization 
effected, the report of the committee on 
resolutions adopted, and delegates 
pledged to Taft were elected. The un- 
disputed evidence indicated that a flag- 
rant attempt had been made to deprive 
Taft of this district, to which he was 
justly entitled. The National Commit- 
tee sustained the title of the Taft dele- 
gates and alternates by a practically 
unanimous vote. 

Fourteenth District. 

In the 14th district there were 15 
counties in the district. When the ex- 
ecutive committee met at San Antonio 
to make up the temporary roll, there 
were 10 members of the committee 
present whose right to act was undis- 
puted, of whom 6 were for Taft and 4 



31 



for Roosevelt. There were 4 other 
Roosevelt men present whose right to 
vote was disputed and who were clearly 
not entitled to represent their county at 
that meeting. One of them held the 
proxy of the committeeman from Ken- 
dall county, who was dead, and the 
proxies from three other counties were 
held, two by postmasters and one by an 
assistant postmaster, while under the 
election law of Texas no one who holds 
an office of profit or trust under the 
United States shall act as a member of 
an executive committee either for the 
State or for any district or county. The 
temporary roll was made up by Taft 
members, having a clear majority, with- 
out permitting these men to act under 
their proxies. There was a contest over 
the delegation from Bexar County, which 
contains the city of San Antonio. Full 
consideration was given to this contest,, 
but the testimony was overwhelming 
that Taft carried the county by a vote 
of four or five to one. On the proper 
basis the total vote in the district con- 
vention was 67, of which the number 
instructed or voting for Taft was 37^; 
the number voting or instructed for 
Roosevelt 28y 2 ; not voting 1. The Taft 
delegation was therefore seated at Chi- 
cago. 









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32 
CONCLUSION 

This is the summary of the contests 
in which there was any shadow of sub- 
stance. It is not essential in order to 
make Mr. Taft's title indisputable that 
<ill men agree on every one of the issues 
raised. They were decided by the tri- 
bunals which uniform party usage had 
made the proper tribunals to decide such 
contests. If those tribunals acted in 
good faith, a mistaken judgment would 
not invalidate their decisions. As a 
matter of fact, an examination of the 
facts shows that the tribunals were right 
in every instance. There is not the 
slightest evidence that they were moved 
by other than an honest desire to reach 
a right conclusion. On the other hand, 
the action of the Roosevelt men in bring- 
ing 160 contests that they promptly 
abandoned, strongly tended to show their 
lack of good faith in the prosecution of 
all of them. Those who support Presi- 
dent Taft can well afford to stand ou 
the record in these cases, and to assever- 
ate without fear of successful contradic- 
tion that the Taft delegates whose seats 
were contested were as fairly seated in 
this convention as in any in the history 
of the party. 






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STATE OF NEW YORK. 



PLATFORM ADOPTED 

BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

in Convention at Rochester. 
April 9—10, 1912. 




Would You Call This 

Platform 
"Bourbon and Reactionary?" 



c 



Platform of the Republican Party of the State 

of New York, Adopted at Rochester, 

April 10, 1912. 

The Republican Party of New York, in state convention assem- 
bled, hereby declares its faith in those fundamental principles of gov- 
ernment established in the United States by the adoption of the Con- 
stitution. 

We believe that this is a self-controlled representative democracy 
as illustrated by the entire course of our national experience. 

We believe that order is the prerequisite of progress, and that this 
national tradition must not be destroyed nor principle be sacrificed to 
opportunism. 

We believe that the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, as incor- 
porated in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of 
each citizen, even if threatened by a temporary majority, shall be for- 
ever preserved. 

We believe that public conscience should express itself properly 
and affirmatively in the election of public officials and not negatively 
in their recall. To reverse this order would encourage disregard of 
duty in electing public officers and place a premium on neglect of that 
duty. The fundamental consideration is that public servants shall be 
soberly elected rather than carelessly elected and then cashiered. 

The new and constantly changing conditions incident to the in- 
dustrial development of the last half century are insistently demanding 
readjustment through legislation. We urge legislation to give better 
protection to life and health and to safeguard those who are engaged 
in dangerous occupations. And we further advocate a workman's com- 
pensation act which in large business organizations shall establish as 
far as possible the principle of insurance against injury to employees. 

We believe in adequate laws to prevent monopoly in trade. We 
favor the retention of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. But it should be 
supplemented by further legislation to give the same certainty to the 
law controlling combinations and monopolies that characterize other 
provisions of our commercial law to the end that the field of business 
opportunity shall not be restricted by monopoly or combination, that 
business success honestly achieved may not be converted into crimes, 
and that the right of all men to acquire commodity and particularly 
the necessities of life in an open market, uninfluenced by the manipula- 
tion of trust or combination, may be preserved. 

There should be provision for an administrative board for the bet- 




>u ■ V ($W*r M*ju* 



ter enforcement of the law against monopoly. There should be further 
legislation to define as criminal offences specific acts which mark at- 
tempts to restrain and monopolize trade so that those who honestly 
intend to obey the law may have a guide for action and those who 
violate the law may more surely be punished. 

We believe in the Republican principle of protection to American 
workingmen, American industries, and the American farmer. Customs 
duties should be adjusted so as to cover the difference between the cost 
of producton in this and in other countries, and such adjustments 
should be made by Congress upon facts ascertained by an impartial 
board with authority to make a thorough investigation. We condemn 
the action of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives 
who long professed to favor a tariff commission to ascertain the facts 
upon which customs might be based and who immediately after obtain- 
ing power repudiated their former professions and proceeded to pass 
tariff bills without regard to the facts reported and without inquiring 
into or caring for the needs of American business or American labor. 

We believe in the amendment of the National Banking Law and 
the creation of a national reserve association, together with provision 
for an elastic system of currency and credit properly safeguarded and 
free from domination of any sectional or special financial influence. 

We believe in the peaceful settlement of all international disputes 
and the reference of all justiciable controversies to an international 
court of justice. 

We oppose as subversive of our form of government the initiative, 
the compulsory legislative referendum and the recall, either of public 
servants or judicial decisions, or any device which impairs consistency 
and continuity in the expression of popular will. 

We oppose the recall of judges or any system which will intro- 
duce cowardice as an element in the administration of justice. The 
authority of the judiciary should not be impaired. Respect for the 
courts once broken down, the. constitutional protection of the liberties 
of the individual would be destroyed. 

We urge the delegates at large from New York and the delegates 
from the Congressional districts to contend at the Republican National 
Convention for the adoption of the principles herein endorsed and the 
repudiation of the doctrines herein opposed. 

We applaud the patriotism, wisdom and undramatic courage of 
President William H. Taft. The overwhelming majority of the repre- 
sentatives of the party in this convention assembled favor his renomina- 
tion, and we urge that the delegates at large here elected in their 
action at Chicago carry out this choice of the Republicans of the State 
and that the district delegates unite to the same end. 



THE TENNY PRESS 

727 Seventh Avenue 

New York 



Mr. Roosevelt Attacks 



THE 



Rochester Platform 



AND 



Mr. Barnes' Reply 



THE TENNY PRESS 

727 Seventh Avenue 

New York 



Colonel Roosevelt's 
Statement. 



Monday, June 3, Colonel Roosevelt handed to the 
press a statement which reads: 

"Ini the past, Mr. Root has rendered distinguished 
service as Secretary of State and Secretary of War. 
But in this contest Mr. Root ranged ( himself against 
the men who stand for progressive principles within 
the Republican party ; that is, against the men who 
stand for making the Republican party in relation 
to the' issues of the present day what it was in the 
days of Abraham Lincoln. He stands as the repre- 
sentative of the men and the policies of reaction. 
He is put forward by the bosses and the representa- 
tives of special privileges." 

Mr. Roosevelt then quotes in full the telegram 
sent by Mr. Barnes to all delegates asking them to 
support Senator Root. 

"This telegram makes the issue perfectly clear," 
he continues. "It is one of principles, not persons. 
Mr. Barnes demands Mr. Root's selection as the 
sign of repudiation of the principles for which I 
stand and as an indorsement of the doctrines enun- 
ciated at the Rochester Convention — doctrines not 
merely reactionary but of such a character that no 
party professing them could carry a single State in 
this Union. These doctrines are so Bourbon and 
reactionary that in every open primary in every 
Northern State since the Rochester convention was 
held, after full discussion, the people have over- 
whelmingly repudiated them." 









Mr. Barnes' Reply. 

Defines and Analyzes the Rochester Platform, 



"If the Republican party at Chi- 
cago in its convention desires to 
follow Mr. Roosevelt's advice and 
declare that the bill of rights of the 
Constitution, endorsed by the Roch- 
ester convention are 'Bourbon and 
reactionary/ then the Republican 
party no longer exists as a force for 
the preservation of the rights of each 
individual citizen in America, but 
has become a plaything of a de- 
mented ambition." 

Republican State Chairman Wil- 
liam Barnes, Jr., made the above 
scathing statement in answer to Col. 
Theodore Roosevelt's attack on him 
and Senator Elihu Root as reactionary 
representatives. Alluding to the op- 
ponent of President Taft as a So- 
cialist, the State Chairman says the 
Colonel intends to subvert the Na- 
tional Government for individual 
ends, and with personifying the 
most dangerous influence in politics 
to-day. 

Chairman Barnes' statement is as 
follows : 

"Mr. Roosevelt is now absolutely 
in the open by his declaration that 
the principles, as he puts it, 'enact- 
ed' at the Rochester Convention are 
not 'merely revolutionary but Bour- 
bon and reactionary.' What are 
those principles? They are these: 

"We believe that this, a self-con- 
trolled representative democracy as 
illustrated by the entire course of 
our national experience. 

We believe that order is the pre- 






requisite of progress, and that this 
national tradition must not be de- 
stroyed nor principle sacrificed to 
opportunism. 

"We believe that the guarantee of 
the Bill of Rights, as incorporated 
in the Constitution of the United 
States for the protection of each citi- 
zen, even if threatened by a tem- 
porary majority, shall be forever 
preserved. 

"These principles form the foun- 
dation upon which this government 
has rested since its establishment 
and to which every citizen except a 
Socialist, will subscribe. 

"Mr. Roosevelt calls it 'Bourbon 
and reactionary' to affirm, 'that this 
is a self-controlled, representative 
democracy.' 

"He says it is 'Bourbon and re- 
actionary' to declare 'that order is 
the prerequisite of progress.' He 
says it is 'Bourbon and reactionary' 
to declare 'that principles should not 
be sacrificed to opportunities.' He 
need not have redeclared that; that 
is illustrated by our experience with 
him. He declares that it is 'Bourbon 
and reactionary' for the Rochester 
convention 'to reaffirm its belief in 
the guarantees of the Bill of 
Rights.' 

"What is that Bill of Rights? It 
is contained in the first ten amend- 
ments to the Constitution and the 
fourteenth amendment. They declare 
that Congress shall have no power 
to pass a law respecting an establish- 
ment of religion, or prohibiting the 



free exercise of it; or bridging the 
freedom of speech or of the press; 
of the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble and to petition the Gov- 
ernment for a redress of grievances. 
"They say that no soldier shall, in 
time of peace, be quartered in any 
house without the consent of the 
owner. 

"They say that the right of the 
people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, paper and effects, against un- 
reasonable search and seizures, shall 
not be violated. 

"They say that no person shall 
twice be put in jeopardy for the same 
offense ; that no person shall be com- 
pelled to be a witness against him- 
self nor be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law. 
"They say that private property 
cannot be used for public use with- 
out just compensation. 

"They say that in all criminal 
prosecutions the accused must be 
confronted with the witnesses 
against him. 

"They say that excessive bail shall 
not be required nor excessive fines 
imposed nor cruel and unusual pun- 
ishments inflicted. 

"They say that no State shall have 
the power to deprive any person of 
life, liberty or property without due 
process of law, nor deny to any per- 
son within its jurisdiction the equal 
protection of the laws. 

"These are the principles reaf- 
firmed by the Rochester Convention 
never before attacked by a public 
man in the history of this nation, but 
now by Mr. Roosevelt declared to 
be 'Bourbon and reactionary.' Mr. 
Roosevelt very properly says that 



this is a question not of men but of j 
principles. If the Republican party 
at Chicago, in its convention, desires | 
to follow Mr. Roosevelt's advice and 
declares that the Bill of Rights of j 
the Constitution, endorsed by the 
Rochester Convention, are 'Bourbon 
and reactionary,' then the Republic- 
an party no longer exists as a force 
for the preservation of the rights of 
each individual citizen in America, 
but has become the plaything of a 
demented ambition, which would use 
the organism of that party, as he 
now openly avows to destroy those 
principles established by the adop- 
tion of the Constitution and reaf- 
firmed by the action of the Rochester 
Convention. 

"Mr. Roosevelt is a clever politi- 
cian and usually has been able to 
conceal his sub-conscious mind, but 
in the statement which he issued 
yesterday he clearly betrayed that 
his ultimate purpose is the subver- 
sion of our government. That has 
been clear to me for years through 
an intimate knowledge and study of 
his basic character. It chafes at all 
restrictions, and, under the stress of 
this conflict has openly betrayed its 
secret recesses wherein are nurtured 
passionate ambitions to use apparent 
popular favor for the destruction of 
the Constitution, an impediment to 
the realization of those ambitions. 

"His candidacy represents, as he 
himself has now declared, simply an 
attack on the Constitution of the 
United States, the sweeping away of 
its safeguards of individual liberty, 
and the establishment in its stead a 
despotism, which, for. his purposes, 
he is now pleased to call 'the rule of 
the people.' " 









OUR CONSTITUTIONAL 

LIBERTIES MUST 

BE PRESERVED 






SPEECH OF WILLIAM BARNES, Jr. 

AT THE 

REPUBLICAN CLUB, NEW YORK 
May 16, 1912 




At the Republican State Convention 

Held at Rochester, N. Y. 

April 9—10, 1912 



OUR CONSTITUTIONAL 

LIBERTIES MUST 

BE PRESERVED 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM BARNES, Jr. 

AT THE 

REPUBLICAN CLUB. NEW YORK 
May 16, 1912 



MR. BARNES DESCRIBES FALSE 
REASONING IN POLITICS. 



His fellow members of the Eepublican Club 
tendered to Wm. Barnes, Jr., Chairman of the Re- 
publican State Committee, a dinner at the club 
house on the evening of May 16, 1912, which was 
marked by enthusiasm. 

Former Congressman J. Van Vechten Olcott, 
president of the club, who acted as toastmaster, 
introduced Mr. Barnes as a philosophical politician 
or a political philosopher. Mr. Barnes spoke as 
follows : 

"This tender of confidence on the part of the 
membership of this club and guests I must regard 
as an indication that during my incumbency of 
the office of chairman of the State Committee we 
have made it clear to the people of this State and of 
the nation that the Republican party of New York 
is an organism imbued with the same spirit and de- 
voted to the same purposes which have given the 
Republican party its reason for existence and 

l 






moulded its character. 

"Clarity of mind is not only the greatest joy ia 
living, but the greatest achievement of endeavor. 
It is not, however, a fixed point, but a progress, 
and that mind which does not emerge from the net- 
work of cobwebs which each day is woven across 
its vision by the spiders of conventional intercourse 
into the realm of clear thinking can never hope to 
possess really the joy of living. The possession 
of a mind, therefore, free from error and at the 
same time capable of concrete external accomplish- 
ment, not mere contemplation, is the ideal of ex- 
istence. Admit this, and all men must admit it un- 
less steeped in error, we come to the natural se- 
quence of thought that he who weaves cobwebs in 
the brains of others commits the greatest indignity 
upon them which can be conceived. It is the pri- 
mal wickedness of the demagogue, that he seduces 
the mind of his listeners with vain hope, sense of 
outrage, grievance, malice, or flattery, that he 
prates that his opponents put the dollar above the 
man, an appeal which must fall on deaf ears, except 
in the case of those who do put the dollar above 
the man, because no man can put the dollar above 
himself except himself. 

"He who with clarity of mind, evenness of life, 
a thorough respect for others, which can only come 
from respect for self, goes on about his business, 



<ft*-fU*4r, 




must be indifferent to his importance in the unim- 
portant world of external relation. It is better to 
be a good cobbler than a bad governor. The test is 
in the achievement, not in the occupation. Failure 
consists in thinking oneself into a picture painted 
of himself by others or of his conception of what 
others might paint. I once knew a man who was 
elected sheriff in one of the up-state counties. The 
day following his election he appeared on the main 
street of his city in a silk hat. That was the end. 
As of an individual, so of a party. It should keep 
its mind straight and its vision unimpaired. It 
should resist with all its will any attempt to be- 
cloud its mind and make it a prey to error. 

TEEACHEEY OF AND TO THE HUMAN 
MIND. 

"No organ is more treacherous than the human 
mind. Like all things in life, its capacity for eleva- 
tion springs from the same genesis as its capacity 
for depravity. The higher it is able to reach, the 
lower has it the capacity to descend. Many a time 
have I said to political friends: "That thing is 
wrong," and the answer has invariably been, "Well, 
it's bound to happen." It is bound to happen, just 
so long as men permit their minds to be treacherous 
to them. It will not happen if rule upon rule and 
precept upon precept, those who have the oppor- 

3 



tunity to get a public hearing, ram home the truths 
of right thinking instead of lazily believing that 
right thinking by the electorate is impossible. The 
public man or the newspaper or the individual citi- 
zen who at any time in his public utterances or in 
his writings or in his intercourse with others, 
strikes a false note or makes an appeal not true to 
his own mind is the greatest enemy of mankind who 
walks the earth. He appeals to that crudity in the 
human mind which locates blame for its own con- 
dition or its own act upon others. The disappear- 
ance of that crudity is evidence of mature life. As 
one grows in mental stature he learns by experi- 
ence that he must lay blame, if any should be laid 
at all, at his own door, and at no one's else. When 
he has learned to do that he has grown into the 
real capacity of the human sovereign, but that 
growth is retarded by the teachings of that school 
of politicians, the first exploiter of which in Amer- 
ica was Aaron Burr, and whose loud followers are 
with us to-day, which tells him that every ill, real 
or fancied, that is his, is caused by somebody else. 

"There is another method which has appealed to 
a great audience for nearly 2,000 years. Its spon- 
sor said: "And why beholdest thou the mote that 
is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam 
that is in thine own eye." 

"Every citizen who expects to pass upon the as- 



|ply an 
»f the 
r ay of 
iberty, 

Itead a. 
■poses, 
•ule of 



pirations of candidates for popular favor should 
secure a copy of the "Federalist" and refurnish his 
mind with the basic reasons why our form of gov- 
ernment is what it is, or if he never knew, to take 
on the study before he sits in judgment. 

TWO FALLACIES OF THE HOUB. 

"I will mention but two fallacies of the hour — 
first, the direct nominations idea, which had its 
birth in the confusion between membership in a 
political association or party and citizenship. A 
primary is not an election. The primary was an 
evolution, the forerunner of the convention, which 
was likewise an evolution made necessary in order 
that those who, associated together for the accom- 
plishment of specific purposes, might have a place 
where personal differences could be settled and can- 
didates chosen to be the bearers of the standard. 

"It is absurd to have preferential presidential 
primaries and then hold a convention. The direct 
nomination of candidates for office with a party 
label is illogical because such candidates do not 
emanate as the result of conciliation, consultation 
and grouping of those holding similar ideas, but 
stand upon their own personal platform. Such 
nominees should appeal to the electorate as inde- 
pendents. The various candidates who have con- 
tended before the electorate of their respective 

5 



parties at the primaries recently held should have 
made their appeal in November. The logical se- 
quence of the establishment of the direct nomina- 
tions idea is the abolition of the official primary 
all together. The exigencies of this abnormal situ- 
ation have compelled the President of the United 
States for the preservation of his party to make 
a personal campaign in order to undo the damage 
caused by a reckless opponent. 

"It must be conceded that the working out of 
this so-called reform has done more to confuse and 
corrupt electors than anything in politics for fifty 
years, a condition which was clearly pointed out by 
those who have maintained a consistent course in 
opposition to this innovation. Others may be able 
to explain what benefits have accrued from this 
half -thought-out idea. I fail to see any unless the 
increase in the circulation of money is looked upon 
as a public benefit. 

THE GENESIS AND IMPORTANCE OF THE 
UNITED STATES SENATE. 

"In the craze to eliminate a few not really im- 
portant individuals from political life the agitators 
have shaken the very foundation stones of our in- 
stitutions. It is the old story of burning the house 
to kill the rats. The house is burned and the rats 
run away. 

6 



tply an 
of the 
tway o^ 
liberty, 
'stead I 
irposes, 






"The second delusion is the agitation for amend- 
ing the constitution by providing for what is called 
the popular election of United States senators. 
Has it not occurred to all of you that there is no 
necessity for two houses of Congress popularly 
chosen? The reason why the Senate or second 
body was created was that its membership should 
have a different genesis than the membership of 
the House of Representatives. Every argument 
for the election of United States Senators by pop- 
ular vote is an argument for the abolition of the 
Senate, because the very existence of the Senate im- 
plies that it shall not be popular and shall not ex- 
press the temporary will. In other words, this 
check was established that an idea must prove its 
worth through a long period of discussion before 
it can take legislative form. 



INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY ASSAILED AS 
NEVER BEFORE. 

"Individual liberty is now assailed in this coun- 
try with a vehemence never before witnessed. The 
development of the socialistic or the community 
idea has grown apace and ignorance has so be- 
clouded the minds of many that they refuse to 
think longer of themselves as persons, but only in 
membership — as of a club, a labor union, a party, 
or some other purely artificial thing. We are or- 

7 



ganized into mental atrophy and are becoming au- 
tomatons. I do not argue that we should not or- 
ganize, but that our membership in any organiza- 
tion represents only one aspect of our external life 
and can be cut off at any moment and should be 
cut off the moment it becomes a restriction, not a 
use. But restriction has an eminent place in gov- 
ernment because such restriction is a necessity for 
the purpose of maintaining indestructible individ- 
ual liberty and external opportunity. We should 
not confuse, however, the function of government 
with the life and mind of the individual which gov- 
ernment was established to protect, not to destroy. 
Neither should the individual clothed with govern- 
mental power misinterpret his function by assum- 
ing that he, in his official capacity, possesses the 
rights of the individual when he has been selected 
to be a servant. Some clever person realizing the 
popularity of the passion for self-destruction has 
capitalized it to his own profit in the song 'Every- 
body's Doing It/ and another, actuated by the same 
instinct has recently written a magazine article to 
tell the world of his discovery that the composite 
mind is the greatest thing on earth. 



DEVELOPMENT OF A COUNTKY DEPENDS 
UPON THE INDIVIDUALS IN IT. 

"All must admit that development and growth 
8 



must be the object of the life of the nation. How 
can that be achieved except by the development 
and the growth of the individual? It is said, how- 
ever, that this country has grown so big and indus- 
trial and other organizations have become so neces- 
sary that individualism must disappear, which ar- 
gument is proof against itself, because it is an ad- 
mission that the greater the crowd the greater the 
ignorance. And this knocks out the doctrine of the 
glory of the composite mind. No, there is only one 
kind of development for a country, and that is the 
development of the individuals in it. 

"The day has come, strange as it may seem, when 
it is necessary to contend in behalf of the American 
constitution, and especially that portion of it which 
establishes as a cardinal principle the benefits 
which man is entitled to possess — life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. 

"James Russell Lowell, writing just before the 
war in his poem, 'The Present Crisis/ said that new 
occasions teach new duties. He would be blind in- 
deed who should attempt 'to unlock the future's 
portal with the past's blood-rusted key,' but new 
occasions do not change the inherent quality of 
human nature, nor require that a future portal be 
opened with a crowbar. A new key may be needed, 
but it must always be a key, not a battering ram. 



THE CRAZE FOR SOMETHING NEW AND 
THE CONSEQUENCES. 

"In the craze for something new the mind of un- 
rest discards as useless everything that is old, neg- 
lectful of the truth that whatever is old has come 
through experience and withstood that hardest of 
tests. The joy of imagination is the beauty of liv- 
ing. It should be cherished as such, but it is not a 
function of government. The wisest provision of 
the American constitution was the self-restraint 
imposed upon the electorate, by itself. 

"That self -restriction is now the real object of 
attack from those whose minds which are so intem- 
perate politically that their advocacy of the aboli- 
tion of these restrictions is proof of the wisdom of 
their retention. It is not important what concrete 
form their mental attitude takes, whether it is in 
the recall of judges, recall of judicial decisions, ini- 
tiative, compulsory legislative referendum, direct 
nominations or anything else. It is the state of 
mind which advocates these concrete things that re- 
quires treatment. That state of mind believes in 
rushing to the Legislature for the enactment of 
statutes to cure evils which can never be remedied 
by legislative enactment. In its failure to succeed 
through legislation, it attacks the organic law, the 
constitution, which protects the individual citizen 

10 



cis xre*> 

>ly an 
»f the 

ay of 

>erty, 
lead a 

>oses, 
i e of 



of America from aggression from every direction, 
on the part of the government, on the part of the 
people or on the part of another individual. No 
constitution can restrain its disordered aspiration. 
It would cast it away as a wornout garment just 
because it was sick of it, like a peevish child. How 
untrustworthy is such a mind was exhibited at Car- 
negie Hall, when I heard Mr. Boosevelt say that it 
took six years to amend the constitution of the 
State of New York, when he, an ex-governor, ought 
to know that it takes three, yet the influence of his 
argument was that his audience demanded amend- 
ment, and that quickly. 

"Every utterance from this socialistic side is a 
demand for the amendment or abrogation of the 
constitutions of state and nation, because restric- 
tions are irksome to its passion. Of course, 
they are irksome. They were framed to be irk- 
some to all impetuous minds and a check upon half- 
thought out ideas. 



TWO FOEMS OF GOVERNMENT. 

"There are two kinds of government that have 
been known in this world; one is the autocracy, 
constantly varying in acceding to popular demands 
or in refusing them, and the democracy, which 
holds to the theory that the people can better gov- 
ern themselves than an autocrat, or even goes fur- 

ii 



ther and says that it is better that a people should 
be free and govern themselves badly than to be well 
governed by an autocrat. The first thing that a 
democracy is therefore called upon to do in order 
to govern itself is to establish rules known as a 
constitution. If a democracy did not do that it 
would soon find itself in such chaos it would be 
compelled to ask somebody to step in and save it 
from itself, thereby destroying itself and creating 
an autocracy. The issue that is presented is not 
one regarding any of the concrete proposals called 
progress, but whether we shall continue to have an 
organized democracy before the electorate of which, 
under rules laid down by it, those of divergent 
opinion may contend for support for their ideas 
or for the furtherance of their ambitions, inherent 
rights which all men possess. 

"No democracy can endure where the people 
have voted as they feel, not as they think, for so 
long a time that they have become incapable of 
thinking at all. America must avoid this danger 
point ere it is too late. 

THE APPEAL TO THE BLEACHERS. 

"Interesting in this connection was the incident 
of the umpire and the bleachers. Representative 
Campbell of Kansas charged that Mr. Roosevelt 
was making his appeal from the umpire to the 

12 



ily an 
the 
|ay of 
>erty, 
>ad a 
loses, 
lie of 



bleachers. Mr. Roosevelt, confident that the public 
mind had been sufficiently abused, that it no longer 
possessed reasoning power, took up the simile and 
accepted it — in other words, he distinctly an- 
nounced that there should be no rules. Do the men 
on the bleachers at a ball game desire in their 
hearts there shall be no rules governing that very 
interesting sport? They know that the umpire is 
an absolute necessity. Not one of them individu- 
ally will say otherwise, and yet collectively they 
might maltreat him. If this became a habit there 
would be no ball games. We must assume that our 
umpires are doing their work honestly. The man 
who does not assume that must of necessity expose 
what his own conduct would be were he clothed 
with similar responsibility. I cannot help but be 
suspicious of the mind which constantly dwells on 
the short-comings of others. It is not natural for 
one who leads a life true to obligation to suspect 
others of not doing the same. 

DOCTRINES OF SOCIALISM NOT TO BE 
URGED UNDER THE GUISE OF RE- 
PUBLICANISM. 

"It is the supreme duty of the Republican party 
at this time to make it clear to the people of the 
United States that our constitutional liberties are 
in danger, either by amendment of the constitution, 

13 






rasrom 



or by revolutionary overthrow. Socialism narrows 
down to the contention that the electorate has the 
right to take away the property and liberty of an 
individual without due process of law. That right 
of the individual to what he has earned and to his 
liberty regardless of the fact that the people may 
wish to take them away is contained in the bill of 
rights of our constitution. I do not believe there 
are many citizens in America who advocate the 
taking away of anything belonging to an individual 
without due process of law and giving it to others, 
Most people look upon that as stealing, but it is ifl 
effect a tenet of the socialistic faith and every 
American citizen has a right to cling to any tenet 
he pleases. All have the right to group and appeal 
to the electorate that the principles in which they 
believe shall be enacted into law. If what they 
want done by law is violative of the constitution 
then they have an orderly method for amendment. 
If in due process of time the socialistic party is 
able to secure a two-thirds majority in Congress 
and amend the bill of rights of the constitution, and 
get that amendment adopted by three-fourths of the 
states, then socialistic legislation will be possible, 
but this should not be attempted under false colors, 
under the guise of Republicanism, because it is not 
Republicanism. It should be attempted by a polit- 
ical party whose purpose is clear and whose ulti- 

14 



fly an 

the 

|ay of 

>erty, 

>ad a 

>ses, 

lie of 



mate object can be seen like a beacon on a rock. 

THE CONSTITUTION TO CONTROL THIS 
GOVERNMENT. 

"It is entirely clear to me to-day, as it has been 
since the death of William McKinley, that the po- 
litical alignments growing ont of the attempted 
cataclysm of secession must in time wear away 
and that a new alignment will gradually take place. 
It must come through sheer force of human nature 
between those who believe, as the Republican party 
has always believed, that this democracy should be 
self-controlled under the form of a constitution, 
with courts to protect the individual and those who, 
consumed with madness, envy, malice or inspira- 
tion, hurl themselves against the wall of orderly 
government, and if successful in beating it down 
disclose, not the promised land which can never 
be, but the autocrat, to whom they turn in despair, 
appalled by the results of their own license." 



is 




THE TENNT PRESS. 

727 Seventh Arenue 

New York 



Py 



an 

the 

y of 

erty, 

ad a 

ses, 

e of 



' 






■■'•'-'' 




At the Republican State Convention 

Held at Rochester, N. Y. 

April 9—10, 1912 






raw 






REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION 



OF THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK 



1912 



ISSUED BY THE 

REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE. 

Headquarters : 

43 WEST 39th STREET, 

NEW YORK CITY. 



Member Republican National Committee, 
WILLIAM BARNES Jr., Albany, N. Y. 



Republican state committee. 

HEADQUARTERS: 

43 WEST 39th STREET, 
NEW YORK CITY. 

1912. 



WILLIAM BARNES, Jr., Chairman. 

HARRY H. BENDER, Treasurer. 

LAFAYETTE B. GLEASON, Secretary. 



* m TL 




Sfp IE .^v 


) v 




8 



Members of Republican State Committee. 



Districts. 

I SMITH COX, . . Freeport, Long Island, N. Y. 

Suffolk, Nassau and part of Queens. 

II JOSEPH H. DeBRAGGA, 

137 Smith Street, Sta. J., Brooklyn. 
Part of Queens. 

Ill PHILIP T. WILLIAMS, . 129 Devoe St., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

IV HARRY JAQUILLARD, . 398 S. 3d St., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

V CHARLES P. MURPHY, 292 Clinton Ave., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

VI FREDERICK J. H. KRACKE, 

11 Kenmore Place, Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

VII CHARLES S. DEVOY, . . 137 14th St., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

VIII MARCUS B. CAMPBELL, 2640 E. 25th St.. Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

IX JACOB A. LIVINGSTON, . 134 Hale Ave., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings and part of Queens. 

X REUBEN L. HASKELL, 1216 Herkimer St., Brooklyn. 
Part of Kings. 

XI GEORGE CROMWELL. 

Dongan Hills, Staten Island, N. Y. 
Richmond and part of New York, 

XII JOSEPH LEVENSON, . 148 Henry St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XIII THOMAS ROTHMAN, Sr., 

40 Second Ave., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 



Districts. 

XIV SAMUEL S. KOENIG, . 237 E. 7th St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XV JOHN S. SHEA, . . 157 E. 31st St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XVI B. W. B. BROWN, . . 52 Wall St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York 

XVII ANTHONY P. LUDDEN, 

114 W. 64th St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XVIII AMBROSE O. NEAL, 528 E. 86th St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XIX ABRAHAM GRUBER, . 314 W. 92d St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XX JOHN B. CARTWRIGHT, 

158 E. 116th St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XXI MOSES M. McKEE. 275 W. 140th St., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XXII WILLIAM H. TEN EYCK, 

378 Mott Ave., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XXIII THOMAS W. WHITTLE, 

2332 Aqueduct Ave., N. Y. City. 
Part of New York. 

XXIV LESLIE SUTHERLAND, . . Yonkers, N. Y. 
Part of New York and part of Westchester. 

XXV WILLIAM L. WARD, . . Port Chester, N. Y. 
Rockland and part of Westchester. 

XXVI BENJAMIN B. ODELL, Jr.. . Newburgh, N. Y. 
Dutchess, Orange and Putnam 

XXVII PHILIP ELTING Kingston, N. Y. 

Columbia, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster. 



XXVIII WILLIAM BARNES, Jr.. 



Albany, N. Y. 



Albany and part of Rensselaer. 



Districts. 

XXIX CORNELIUS V. COLLINS, . . Troy, N. Y. 
Part of Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren and Washington. 

XXX WILLIAM B. COLLINS, . Gloversville, N. Y. 
Fulton and Hamilton, Montgomery and Schenectady. 

XXXI EDWIN A. MERRITT, Jr., . Potsdam, N. Y. 
Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence. 

XXXII JAMES A. LOYSTER, . . Cazenovia, N. Y. 
Jefferson, Lewis, Madison and Oswego. 



XXXIII M. JESSE BRAYTON, 

Herkimer and Oneida. 



Utica, N. Y. 



, 



XXXIY SAMUEL L. SMITH, 

157 Chapin Street, Binghamton, N. Y. 
Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Otsego. 

XXXV FRANCIS HENDRICKS, 

Syracuse, N. Y. (State Bank). 
Onondaga and Cortland. 

XXXVI CHARLES H. BETTS.. . . Lyons, N. Y. 

Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Wayne and Yates. 

XXXVII SEYMOUR LOWMAN, . . Elmira, N. Y. 

Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tompkins and Tioga. 



XXXVIII GEORGE W. ALDRIDGE 
Part of Monroe. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



XXXIX FRED B. PARKER Elba, N. Y. 

Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming and part of Monroe. 

XL WILLIAM H. DANIELS, 

Court and Pearl Sts., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Niagara and part of Erie. 

XLI HENRY C. STEUL, 

561 E. Utica St., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Part of Erie. 

XLII JOHN GRIMM, Jr., 12 Walnut St., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Part of Erie. 



XLIII FRANK R. UTTER, . . Friendship, N. Y. 
Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. 



State of New York. 

CHAIRMEN OF REPUBLICAN COUNTY COMMITTEES, 
1912. 



County. 


Name. 


Post Office Address. 


Albany 


. . Ellis J. Staley 


. . 6 James Street, Albany 


Allegany . . 


. . A. Miner Wellman. . 


. . Friendship 


Broome. . . . 


..Dr. Chas. S.Butler. 


. . Harpursville 


Cattaraugus. . J. M. Wilson 


. . Cattaraugus 


Cayuga. . . . 


. . Arthur E. Blauvelt.. 


. . Auburn 


Chautauqus 


i.. Charles H. Wicks.... 


. . Jamestown 


Chemung. . 


. . Seymour Lowman... 


. . Elmira 


Chenango. . 


..James P. Hill 


. . Norwich 


Clinton 


. . Wallace Turner 


. . Plattsburgh 


Columbia. . 


. . . Charles Tracy 


. . Ghent 


Cortland. . . 


. '. Jerry L. Eades 


. . Cortland 


Delaware. . 


. . James F. Foreman. . 


..Delhi 


Dutchess. . . 


. . John A. Hanna 


. . Dover Plains 




C. A. Fowler, Sec'y. 


. Poughkeepsie 


Erie 


. .William H.Daniels.. 


.Court & Pearl Sts., Buffalo 
Hdqrs., 211 Ellicott Sq. 


Essex 


..J. W. Bullen 


.Ticonderoga; 


Franklin. . . 


..H.C.Carter 


. Malone 


Fulton 


. .John A. Cole 


. Gloversville 


Genesee. . . . 


. . Fred. B. Parker 


• Elba 


Greene 


. .Frank D.Cole 


. Cairo 


Hamilton. . . 


..Edgar Call 


. Lake Pleasant 


Herkimer. . . 


. . Frank Senior 


.Little Falls 


Jefferson . . . 


. . Archie C. Ryder 


. Watertown 


Kings.... ,. 
i 


f A. E.Vass 


.44 Court St., Brooklyn 


\ Chas. S. Devoy, Ex. Ch'man, 44 Court St. Brooklyn 


Lewis 


. . Harry J. Henry 


. Copenhagen 


Livingston. 


. . Chas. W. Gamble. . . 


. Mt. Morris 


Madison. . . 


. . M. E. Tallett 


. DeRuyter 


Monroe. . . . 


. . James L. Hotchkiss . 


. German Ins. Bldg., 

Rochester 


Montgomer 


f.. Willis Wendell 


. Amsterdam 






mm ■■■•■*■■.">. 



County. Name. Post Office Address. 

New York. . . . Samuel S. Koenig 105 W. 40th St., N. Y. City 

Nassau Lewis J. Smith Mineola 

Niagara M. S. Niland Lockport 

Oneida Garry A. Willard Boonville, Headq'ters Utica 

Onondaga. . . . Willard A. Rill 631 Univ. Block, Syracuse 

Ontario Horace W. Fitch Canandaigua 

Orange George F. Gregg Goshen 

Orleans Milton J. Whedon. . . . Medina 

Oswego P. G. Hydorn Lacona 

Otsego W. L. Morris Baird Block, Oneonta 

Putnam John R. Yale Brewster 

Queens Frank E. Losee Maspeth, L. I. 

Rensselaer. .. . Abraham L. Payton. . 26 4th St., Troy 
Richmond. . . . George L. Nichol. . . . 1262 Cherry Lane, 

W. New Brighton 

Rockland R. I. Odell Tompkins Cove 

St. Lawrence. Edwin A. Merritt, Jr. .Potsdam 

Saratoga George H.Whitney . . . Mechanic ville 

Schenectady. . Alanson Robison Parker Bldg., Schenectady 

Schoharie Charles A. Wieting.. . . Cobleskill 

Schuyler H. H. Graham Beaver Dams 

Seneca Norman J. Gould . Seneca Falls 

Steuben Charles Larrowe. ..... Cohocton 

Suffolk Dr, William Carr 560 5th Ave., N. Y. City 

Center Moriches, L. I. 

Harry Lee, Sec'y Riverhead, L. I. 

Sullivan H. B. McLaughlin Liberty 

Tioga Fred C. Hill Owego 

Tompkins. . . . P. S. Millspaugh Ithaca 

Ulster Philip Elting Kingston 

Warren Louis E. Reoux Warrensburg 

Washington.. . James S. Parker Salem 

Wayne Charles A. Noble Lyons 

Westchester <! Wm - L ' Ward Port Chester; 

esrc ester I John J. Brown, Sec'y -Hdqrs.. White Plains 

Wyoming Bert P. Gage Warsaw 

Yates Howard S. Fullager. . . Penn Yan 



RULES OF THE REPUBLICAN 
STATE COMMITTEE. , 



Adopted April 2, 1912. 



Rule 1. The officers of the Republican State Com- 
mittee shall be a Chairman, a Secretary and a Treasurer. 

Rule 2. Meetings of the Committee shall be held 
upon the call of the Chairman, or a majority of its mem- 
bership. 

Rule 3. The general rules of parliamentary law shall 
be followed in all meetings of the Committee. If any 
member of the Committee is unable to attend any meet- 
ing of same, he may delegate some one by proxy to rep- 
resent him at such meeting. 

Rule 4. The Chairman may appoint sub-committees 
of such number, and composed in whole or in part of 
persons not members of this Committee, as he may 
deem advisable. 

Rule 5. All primaries shall be conducted in accord- 
ance with the rules and regulations of the party in the 
political sub-divisions in which said primaries are held. 

Rule 6. No candidacy for any nomination for public 
office shall be endorsed by this Committee. 



■'-.•■..• 



H 



THE TBNNT PRESS 

727 Seventh Avenue 

Now York 



■ 



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HSflHBHGP 



^H 



„HHH. 

IP Bl w • 



3Sff Pi?jia 




STATE OF NEW YORK 

PLATFORM ADOPTED 

AND 

SPEECHES MADE 

BY 

Messrs. BUTLER, ROOT 
WADSWORTH £? HEDGES 



At the Republican State Convention 

Held at Rochester, N. Y. 

April 9—10, 1912 



\ 



t 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGES. 

Platform Adopted 3, 4 

Address of the Presiding Officer, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler. . 5, 22 

Speech of the Hon. Elihu Root 23, 26 

Speech of the Hon. James W. Wadsworth, Jr. 27, 33 

Speech of the Hon. Job E. Hedges 34, 38 

William Barnes, Jr., Explains the Platform 39 






THiE: T'EINNY PRESS. 

727 Seventh Avenue 

'New York 










Platform of the Republican Party of the State 

of New York, Adopted at Rochester, 

April 10, 1912 

The Republican Party of New York, in state convention assem- 
bled, hereby declares its faith in those fundamental principles of gov- 
ernment established in the United States by the adoption of the Con- 
stitution. 

We believe that this is a self -controlled representative democracy 
as illustrated by the entire course of our national experience. 

We believe that order is the prerequisite of progress, and that this 
national tradition must not be destroyed nor principle be sacrificed to 
opportunism. 

We believe that the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, as incor- 
porated in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of 
each citizen, even if threatened by a temporary majority, shall be for- 
ever preserved. 

We believe that public conscience should express itself properly 
and affirmatively in the election of public officials and not negatively 
in their recall. To reverse this order would encourage disregard of 
duty in electing public officers and place a premium on neglect of that 
duty. The fundamental consideration is that public servants shall be 
soberly elected rather than carelessly elected and then cashiered. 

The new and constantly changing conditions incident to the indus- 
trial development of the last half century are insistently demanding 
readjustment through legislation. We urge legislation to give better 
protection to life and health and to safeguard those who are engaged 
in dangerous occupations. And we further advocate a workman's com- 
pensation act which in large business organizations shall establish as 
far as possible the principle of insurance against injury to employees. 

We believe in adequate laws to prevent monopoly in trade. We 
favor the retention of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. But it should be 
supplemented by further legislation to give the same certainty to the 
law controlling combinations and monopolies that characterize other 
provisions of our commercial law to the end that the field of business 
opportunity shall not be restricted by monopoly or combination, that 
business success honestly achieved may not be converted into crimes, 
and that the right of all men to acquire commodity and particularly 
the necessities of life in an open market, uninfluenced by the manipula- 
tion of trust or combination, may be preserved. 

There should be provision for an administrative board for the bet- 



ter enforcement of the law against monopoly. There should be further 
legislation to define as criminal offences specific acts which mark at- 
tempts to restrain and monopolize trade so that those who honestly 
intend to obey the law may have a guide for action and those who 
violate the law may more surely be punished. 

We believe in the Republican principle of protection to American 
workingmen, American industries, and the American farmer. Customs 
duties should be adjusted so as to cover the difference between the cost 
of production in this and in other countries, and such adjustments 
should be made by Congress upon facts ascertained by an impartial 
board with authority to make a thorough investigation. We condemn 
the action of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives 
who long professed to favor a tariff commission to ascertain the facts 
upon which customs might be based and who immediately after obtain- 
ing power repudiated their former professions and proceeded to pas* 
tariff bills without regard to the facts reported and without inquiring 
into or caring for the needs of American business or American labor. 

We believe in the amendment of the National Banking Law and 
the creation of a national reserve association, together with provision 
for an elastic system of currency and credit properly safeguarded and 
free from domination of any sectional or special financial influence. 

We believe in the peaceful settlement of all international disputes 
and the reference of all justiciable controversies to an international 
court of justice. 

We oppose as subversive of our form of government the initiative, 
the compulsory legislative referendum and the recall, either of public 
servants or judicial decisions, or any device which impairs consistency 
and continuity in the expression of popular will. 

We oppose the recall of judges or any system which will intro- 
duce cowardice as an element in the administration of justice. The 
authority of the judiciary should not be impaired. Respect for the 
courts once broken down, the constitutional protection of the liberties 
of the individual would be destroyed. 

We urge the delegates at large from New York and the delegates 
from the Congressional districts to contend at the Republican National 
Convention for the adoption of the principles herein endorsed and the 
repudiation of the doctrines herein opposed. 

We applaud the patriotism, wisdom and undramatic courage of 
President William H. Taft. The overwhelming majority of the repre- 
sentatives of the party in this convention assembled favor his renomina- 
tion, and we urge that the delegates at large here elected in their 
action at Chicago carry out this choice of the Republicans of the State 
and that the district delegates unite to the same end. 



DR. BUTLER'S ADDRESS 

Fkllow Republican*: 

For the signal honor of being chosen as temporary presiding offi- 
cer of this Convention, I o&er an expression of my grateful thanks and 
appreciation. 

In this assembly we have a chance to see our representative insti- 
tutions at work. We have come here from every part of the State 
of New York, bearing credentials from ©ur neighbors and fellow- 
members of ©ur Party, in order that we may select four delegates * 
at4arge to represent the Republicans ©f New York in the Convention 
which is called to meet at Chicago to nominate candidates for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President of the United States. We are at the same 
time to declare our convictions and beliefs as to those matters of 
present moment whieh concern not only the policies of the Republican 
Party, but the interests of all the people of the United States. It 
is our duty, as it is our privilege, to represent as faithfully as we 
can the convictions and the preferences o£ those who have sent us here. 
It is equally our duty and our privilege to sound no uncertain or 
faltering note as to what we believe to be at stake in the political 
contest which has, informally at least, already begun. It is further- 
mere our duty and ©ur privilege to bring to the decision of these 
matters our best, most independent, and most patriotic judgment. 

Since March 4, 1897, Republican policies and convictions have 
been represented and voiced in the highest executive office under our 
jgoverament. We are to ask for a renewal of popular confidence and 
support. We are to point not only to what has been accomplished, 
but to what we propose to do if entrusted for a still longer period 
with the executive control of the G-overnment of the United States. 

Republicans Welcome Criticism from Opponents. 

What criticism is made of the Republican administration of the 
nation during the past sixteen years? There is, first, the honest and 
fair criticism of ©ur opponents from whom we differ in many matters 
of fundamental political policy, which criticism we expect to meet and 
to answer before the people when the issue is joined. This criticism 
Is a natural and necessary incident in the conduct of a republican 
form ef government carried on, as it only can be successfully carried 
on, under the two-party system. Second, there is criticism of a new 



and unusual kind. It comes from an element wMc%, however numer- 
ous, is certainly in full possession of its powers of gjpeech, and whict 
w found m pert within the ranks of our own Partqf and ibt part withtfc 
the ranks of the Democratic Party. It includes the whole of the 
Socialist Ffcr%, as well as some of those whose mental condition is 
one of suoh blissful elevation that th&y eannot nkd aay pd^cal as- 
sociation quite satisfactory to them. These critics feeB us that we are 
behind the tfenes ; that we are* in the significant language of t&e gam- 
ing table, "stand-patters" ; that we have lost touch with the msereh 
of progress ; that we are out of sympathy with the satisf action of the 
deepest human needs and with Hie alleviation of human sufferhag; that 
we put property rights above hssman righ&s; and that s©me means— 
violent if possifcte, peaceable if necessary— *autt be found to free the 
Government from our paralyzing 1 control. 

To os» who knows the political history of the United Stages* t® 
one who has followed the development and policies of the HepuMiean 
Party, t& #ne who rsaMses the overwhehnkg measure of popular sup- 
port and approval that those poHeles have had for haM a eaatury, those 
charges seem sfmags Indeed. One wonders whether he is rea% listen- 
ing t© the speech ol &aae man or to the incoherent ravings of Bedlam. 

Th& Republican Party had its birth in the struggle for human 
freedom. It was responsible for tke conduct of a stupendous war to 
preserve the Government founded l?y QiM Constitution. It enacted the 
legislation necessary i# open up the puble lands of the West in order 
that the rapidly growing popul&^oa might find homesteads and share 
in the postmmu df the soli It entered upon fite industrial poMcy 
whkh in its jedgmeat wmM. devdbp manufactures and commeroe, ad- 
vance tlie wages of Uhm* and u*$ effectively the natural resources and 
opportunities of &e eosnfcry. It fought for and secured the deSnitive 
estabHshmemt of the gold standard for our currency, and thereby pre- 
served both the gmtit name and the ere® of the Nation. It formu- 
lated the legislation to control and to destroy monopolies in interstate 
commerce, and it has vigorously and successfully enforced that law. It 
has steadily extended the operation of the merit system in its appli- 
cation to appointments and promotions in the Civil Service, and it has 
thereby freed the civil servants of the people from partisan domination 
and ejectment. It has, both in the Congress of the United States and 
In the Legislatures of the several States, led the way in formulating 
legislation to meet new and complex social needs and problems, as weD 
as to protect and to safeguard the wage-earner. To these important 
achievements might be added many others. What, then, is the trouble, 
what is the character and the measure of Republican shortcoming? 



Injustice of Criticism. 

Tbe answer comes back that our whole form of government is 
askew; that Ike Rep®yieaiis and tlie Democrats are equally at fault; 
that all departments of the Government are controlled by special and 
material kfcsrests; and tha& the peoffe, wl*ose gownmeit it Is, hare 
bo longer any voice in its masj^ement. If these statements were made 
of the government of Rnssia in the seventeenth century, or of the gov- 
ernment of China wader the M&Behu ^ags, or of the goverataeat of 
a® usr^fornied Turkey, they would neither surprise nor alarm us. 
B^ they are made of the Governmeat of the XMied State*; of the 
government of Washington and Hamilton, of Jefferson and Madison; 
of f&e government of Marshal! and Webster, of Jackson and U&coln. 
Thmj are made of mt>r Government, under which at this mosseat an 
overwhelming majority &i ©ae huadfeed rn&Eons of human beings are 
living ia happiness sad eomtentmeai, and eajoyiag a reasonable de- 
gree of prosperity, edueatmg their eMldfrea, and looking t&rwsbrd to 
constantly expanchag opportunities for usefulness and * satisfaction. 
These statements are so preposterous, so contrary to recorded and 
demonstrated laot, and mirinsically so absurd, that unless we were 
Gonstaatfy hearing and readag them we might have difficulty in per- 
suading ourselves &at they are really made. One may fee pardoned 
for askmg whether as a people we have lost both our common sense and 
the saving grace of hsmer that we are able to listen to such nonsense 
with anything resembling patience. 

Indulgence ©i the People Opposed to Despotism. 

What do these extraordinary statements mean? They appear to 
mean, so far as they mean fAjrthi&g iafcell%ible, either that the Ameri- 
can people are mesmpelent fm seM-^verameat, or that they have cre- 
ated a governmental machinery wMch, while ia form under popular 
control, is really managed by private and special interest. Examine 
for a moment these alternatives. If the American people are incom- 
petent for self-government, then it oan make little difference what 
programme we propose or what candidates we adopt. Sooner or later 
a people incompetent for seM-govemment will pass under the heel of 
a despot, where they beloag. "But," it is said, "of course we do not 
mean aaything g@ absurd as that. The American people are really 
most wise and most competent, only they are bound hand and foot by 
governmental forms and traditions, which hold them as in a vise." 
It appears, on farther inquiry, that what is really meant is that rep 
resentative government and representative institutions are a failure, 
and that they must be swept aside to make way for a direct democracy, 

7 



La particular, it appears that the most characteristic and feme- 
Scent of American institutions, the independent judiciary charged with 
the interpretation of the law and with the safeguarding of eonstiii: 
donal Hesitations, is now regarded as a harmful check upon the peo- 
ple's wil and as an obstacle to their free and progressive social and 
political development. This Wings us within reasonable distance of 
something tkat can be intelligently debated. 

Uncalled-for Denunciation of the Judiciary. 

When we pass from those vague generalities which declaimere and 
land-lot orators and perpetual candidates for office so dearly loTe, and 
come to -concrete issues, what are these governmental forms and 
traditions that are found to be so harmful and so abundant in unfortu- 
ftaie limitations? What is the characteristic of judges and of courts 
that has so suddenly converted them from public servants of the high- 
est type into public enemies of the most dangerous character? What 
bas happened to lead us to turn our backs upon the forms of repre- 
sentative government set up by the Constitution of the United States 
and hailed everywhere for more than a century as the greatest political 
advance made by modern men? AH this advance, all this progress, all 
this successful seeking after liberty under law, has, it seems, sud- 
denly become fossilised, out of date, and a phase of the rule of the dead 
band. 

If this vehement denunciation of our Government and of our 
courts is one-half true, then the Republican Party should get down 
tm its knees and apologize to the people of this country for having 
three times defeated so far-sighted a man as Mr. Bryan for the Presi- 
dency of the United States, 

It might be supposed that since the people themselves freely choose 
their executive and legislative representatives for short terms, and in 
their own way, they would find agents willing and able to execute 
their declared w2L If not, why all this excitement and discussion 
fear by year, as to local, state and national elections? Is it conceiv- 
able that al these candidates for executive and legislative offices are the 
creatures of political bosses and of special interests, and that none of 
them, or no large part of them, ewe allegiance to the people and are 
billing to serve the people's interests? The question answers itself, 
unless we are to suppose a popular incompetence and a popular cor- 
ruption that would make all government impossible. The fact of th* 
matter is that the majority of the people are having their way in local 
rtate and national affairs whenever they are interested enough to let 
it be known with definiteness what their way is. They will have their 



way still more promptly and effectively when the short ballot system is 
adopted. The assertion that something remains to be done to estab- 
lish the rule of the people is as foolish as it is false. Those who are 
dissatisfied belong chiefly to one of two classes. They belong either 
to a fussy and petulant minority that wishes to use the legislative 
power of the people to advance some fad or fancy of its own, or they 
belong, consciously or unconsciously, to that large group of Socialists 
and semi-Socialists who are waging relentless war on representative 
government, on civil liberty, and on the rights of property everywhere. 
With these petulant minorities we need not deal farther than to express 
the hope that they will always remain minorities, and that time may 
bring them resignation instead of petulance. With the Socialists and 
semi-Socialists, however, we are compelled to deal, and we should deal 
with them openly, frankly, and by the use of the arguments whieh 
Nature and history have placed in our hands. 

The Recall Aimed at Honest Judges. 

What these revolutionary elements of the population most dis- 
like is the rule of law. They call it the rule of the established order, 
but they mean the rule of law. Their conception of government is a 
sort of glorified lynching, before which the achievements at Spring- 
field, HI., or at Coatesville, Pa., would fade into insignificance. The 
phrase "due process of law" drives them to frenzy, and any judicial 
oflcer who, in obedience to his oath, ventures to declare the law to be 
something which is out of agreement with their present-day prepos- 
sessions, prejudices, emotions or desires, becomes a tyrant who should 
be dashed from his place on the Bench by the profoundly wicked 
instrumentality of the recall of judges. The process of impeachment 
is at hand for the removal of the corrupt or unjust judge, if such 
there be; the recall, be it remembered, is aimed at the courageous and 
high-minded judge who defends the people's will from the attacks of 
the people's feeling and the people's passion. It has been well said 
that "savages .do not like an independent and upright judiciary; they 
want the judge to decide their way, and if he does not, they want t© 
behead him." 

It is forgotten, apparently, that a judge declares the law, but 
does not make it, and that in declaring the law he is executing the 
people's highest and most mature will. In so doing he is not imposing 
anything upon the people save what they, as responsible, reflective, 
eivilized human beings, have imposed upon themselves as the necessary 
and well- justified restraints upon appetite and passion. The rule ©f 
law is not something imposed upon a free people from without. It 
consists of the self-imposed limitations which justice and equity de~ 

9 



mand. The man who would destroy the independent judiciary be- 
cause he dislikes or differs from some specific judicial finding is as mad 
as a man who would set his house on fire in order to improve its ven- 
tilation. 

It must be remembered that there is one thing superior to the 
people's will and beyond the people's reach, and that is the ever-last- 
ing distinction between right and wrong, between justice and injustice. 
A majority may make theft legal, but they cannot make it right. The 
demand for the overthrow of courts and their findings by an appeal to 
general opinion is an appeal from law to lawlessness, from order to 
anarchy. It will provide a new opportunity for calculated cunning 
to play upon credulous ignorance. 

Is the Republican Party to Drift from Its Traditions? 

With all this the Republican Party — always and everywhere a 
Party dedicated to the advancement of human liberty and to the broad- 
ening of human opportunity — must be everlastingly at war> This is no 
time for the ordinary platitudes of party complacency. We are not 
yet ready to substitute government by men of presumably good in- 
tentions for government by law. This contest within the party, and 
this Presidential election, may decide whether our government is to be 
republican or Cossack. Are the Republicans of New York for consti- 
tutional government or against it? Are they prepared to maintain and 
to advance the old historic party of Lincoln, or are they ready to 
cast its principles and its convictions to the winds in order to make 
a new and revolutionary one? We owe it to our traditions, we owe 
it to ourselves, we owe it to the people of the United States, to make 
the fight vigorously and in the open for the preservation of the Gov- 
ernment founded by the Constitution . and for the development of our 
political life along and within the lines and limitations there estab- 
lished. This is the one and only path of enlightened and constructive 
statesmanship. 

But, it is said, the Constitution was made in the eighteenth cen- 
tury; the Constitution was made by men who lived under conditions 
long since passed away; the Constitution was made by men whose ex- 
perience was drawn from economic facts quite different from those of 
to-day. Therefore, the Constitution is outworn. It must be adjusted, 
the phrase now runs, to human rights. All this would be humorous 
were it not so pathetic. 

If the Constitution is Antiquated, How About the Rule of Three? 
What about the multiplication table? What about the Rule of 
Three? What about the law of gravitation? Some of these eesse 

10 



down to us from hoary antiquity. Surely they cannot be allowed t© 
pass unamended in the face of such changed conditions as now sur- 
round us I Why should the dead hand of the Greeks and of the Arabs 
and of Sir Isaac Newton control our life and thought? Let us be free 
and independent and adjust our modes of counting and of computa- 
tion to the new economic needs that surround us! Perhaps those who 
invented the multiplication table and the Rule of Three never heard 
of a corporation with a thousand millions of capital. How could the 
multiplication table and the Rule of Three be expected to deal with 
a condition such as that? 

The fact is that in the history of mankind some things, after long 
toil and tribulation, are settled once for all. They neither invite nor 
permit amendment and improvement. These achievements, taken to- 
gether, are progress ; they constitute progress ; they are the evidences 
of progress; they are what the word progress means. To attack, to 
undermine, or to overturn them is not progress, but reaction. Every- 
thing else that is progress is built upon them and assumes their exist- 
ence. It is progressive to prune a tree and to fertilize the soil in which 
it grows ; it is reactionary to tear it up by the roots in order to see how 
it is getting on. 

Stability of the Party's Principles. 

The fundamental principles which underlie the Constitution of 
the United States are of this kind. The history of the past century 
and a quarter has proved conclusively not only that those principles 
are sound and true, but that they are plastic and susceptible of de- 
velopment in their application to new needs and conditions. They are 
no straight- jacket into which a growing people is forced to its distress 
and harm. They are rather a chart by which the ship of state may sail 
safely out on new and untried seas, certain that the danger spots 
are clearly marked and the havens accurately indicated. These con- 
stitutional principles, these representative institutions, this indepen- 
dent judiciary, rest not alone upon the authority of the fathers, not 
alone upon more than a century of briliantly successful experience; 
they rest also upon principles of human nature and of human rights 
so secure and so firm that if the work of building a government for a 
free, independent and self-disciplined people had to be done all over 
again, if we were to begin again to-day, the result would be precisely 
the same. These principles can never grow old; they are everlast- 
ingly young and new and true. 

Of course, it is perfectly possible for a majority of the people, if 
they are so minded, to overturn the principles of our constitutional 
government ®r to deprive them of their meaning; but this must not 

II 



fee done under the false and deceiving banner of progress or in the 
name of human right*. The men who wish to do these things are 
men whose aim, whether they know it or not, is reaction, not progress ; 
backward revolution, not advance; and anarchy, not order under law. 
True progress is order in motion, not chaos in eruption. 

The fact of the matter is that the long temporizing of the Ameri- 
can people with lawlessness is beginning to bear bitter political fruit. 
We cry out with one voice at some striking and conspicuous evidence 
of disregard for law, but we sit mutely by while a hundred law-break- 
ing acts less conspicuous in character are committed and while the 
habit of lawlessness and of contempt for law is being formed. We 
even applaud when some high and popular official snaps his fingers 
at the law and its restraints upon him. Mistakes may be made — in- 
deed, mistakes often are made — in the enactment of laws; but, once 
enacted, it is the business of the executive and judicial departments 
of the Government to enforce them with impartiality and strict justice, 
to the end that if they do not accomplish what was expected of them 
theie laws may be modified or repealed. We need a new baptism of 
faith in law and a new revelation as to the futility of enacting tens of 
thousands of statutes. We have fallen so into the habit of legislating 
on a hundred and one minor details of life as to which there are reason- 
able and proper differences of opinion, that we have in large measure 
destroyed the feeling of sanctity for law upon which alone our institu- 
tions and our civilization can rest. 

Lawlessness Threatens the Fundamental Law. 

This widespread lawlessness and contempt for law has now 
reached the fundamental law itself. This lawlessness began with dis- 
regard of criminal statutes. It soon grew to include disregard of 
statutes of another kind, which did not happen to commend themselves 
to the individual law-breaker. It is now widespread enough to include 
contempt for that fundamental law which is the foundation of all stat- 
utes and which alone stands between the individual citizen and tyranny, 
whether it be the tyranny of a single despot or the tyranny of a 
many-headed majority. It is confidently predicted by the political di- 
rect-action men that when their dynamiting of the government is over, 
the happy day will dawn when law and the application of law will be 
decided upon, not by public officers acting under the sanctity of a ju- 
dicial oath, but by the marching mob and those tumultuous assem- 
blages from which so out-of-date a patriot as Daniel Webster told us 
that our American mode of government could draw no power. When 
that day dawns, no individual's life will be safe, no individual's prop- 
erty will be secure; for the restraints which a republican form of 

12 



government puts upon itself for their protection wiU have been torn 
away. Liberty goes when order falls. Human rights are then not 
worth a minute's purchase, any more than is the life of a poor negro 
pleading for justice while the howling and exultant mob pushes kim 
into the flames or riddles his hanging body with bullets. 

Political Patent Medicine Men Recommend Their Nostrums. 

Conditions in the United States to-day are singularly like those 
which have attracted the favorable attention of a certain class of per- 
sons who are forced to make a living by their wits. The vendor of a 
patent medicine assures his hearers that they have at the moment 
some distressing symptoms, naming symptoms which every one has at 
one time or another. His hearers, assenting, easily accept the inference 
that they are seriously diseased and in need of instant relief. That 
relief can only be had from the contents of the bottle or package which 
ihey may purchase of him at a satisfactory price. Just this perform- 
ance is being enacted to-day all over the United States by itinerant 
political patent medicine men. They tell all those who will listen that 
we are politically diseased and that our political life is in danger; 
our symptoms are those dreadful manifestations which, to some extent 
and in some degree, every human being and every form of society feel 
now and then. But the cure, the certain, sure, speedy cure, is to pur- 
chase the bottle or the package which contains the political patent 
medicine that the particular political patent medicine man has for sale. 
His plausible story wins enough support to gain him a livelihood and 
to keep his name in active prominence before the public. 

We are to-day infested with these political patent medicine men. 
Ignorant of ordinary laws of political and social growth, or defying 
them, they press upon us the odd and curious nostrums of their own 
making which are to cure all our evils, to abolish poverty, to do away 
with injustice, and to bring about that happy and blissful Utopia 
of which certain types of men with nothing useful to do habitually 
dream. 

Pious and oracular aphorisms are the stock in trade of the political 
patent medicine man whose pursuit of a higher office is so compelling 
that he cannot find time to attend to the duties of the office which he 
already holds. The plain discharge of present duty does not seem 
likely to commend him sufficiently to a larger and more important 
constituency. Neither the Senate of the United States nor the gov- 
ernorship of a sovereign State offers adequate scope for his activities 
and his genius. He must hurry off, while public business waits, in 
t»?4@r that he may sound Ms own praises and recite his own phrases 
te the open-mouthed thousands who assemble to greet so gTeat a man. 

13 



These great men love platitudes. They are very fond of saying: 
"Human rights must no longer be trampled under foot by property 
rights." This is one of their profound and moving utterances. Inas- 
much, however, as property rights are human rights, and as property 
includes the clothes that we wear and the roof that shelters us and 
the food in the closet, as well as the stocks and bonds that we may 
own or the balance that we may have in the bank, it is plain that 
these particular demagogues are muddled. What they really have in 
mind, if they could think at all clearly, is a contrast between one sort 
or kind of human rights and another. But if they said anything so 
simple as that, the whole issue would be perfectly plain, everybody 
would agree, the end in view would speedily be accomplished, and they 
would be out of business. Another thing that they are fond of telling 
us is that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy. Those 
words sound as if they meant something — but what is it? What do 
they mean? Democracy is a form of government. We either have it 
or we do not have it. It may be improved or injured in quality, but 
how can it be added to or diminished in quantity? As a matter of 
fact, this statement means absolutely nothing, although it tickles the 
ears of the groundlings and appears to convey a great and inspiring 
political truth. Obviously, the only way to cure the evils of democracy 
is to overcome those evils with good. Still another battle-cry espe- 
cially well thought of by those who are waging war on constitutional 
forms and limitations is this : "The country and its government belong 
to the people who live in it." Here is another majestic utterance, 
which can hardly be denied; but the question remains, just what does 
it mean? Does it mean that those who live in a country and under a 
government are at liberty to ravage and to burn the one or to cor- 
rupt and to overturn the other? Or does it mean that there is some 
limitation upon the right of those who live in a country and under a 
government as to what they may do with the one and the other? If 
there is a limitation, who put it there and what is it? The fact of the 
matter is that all these soothsayings, just now enjoying more or less 
popularity, are plain, simple, ordinary, meaningless platitudes. The 
demagogue's platitudes remain platitudes even when he makes them 
pompous. These platitudes are the delight of men for whom politics 
is a perpetual running to a fire, and then returning disconsolately from 
one false alarm after another. They are the stock in trade of those 
who mistake the lamentations of the disappointed and the unsuccessful 
and the cries of the vindictive for the voice of the people. 

It may perhaps be said that, however misleading these political 
patent medicine men may be, however ignorant and however selfish 
the popular demagogues of the day, yet they have gained so large a 

14 



following that we must listen to them and buy their political patent 
medicine or else we shall fail to carry the next Presidential election. 
I deny it absolutely. I deny that the Republican Party and its prin- 
ciples are for sale. I deny that a political party exists only to win 
elections at any cost. I assert, on the contrary, that any self-respect- 
ing political party exists, first of all, to advance the doctrines of human 
liberty and of government in which it believes, and to seek to carry 
those doctrines into practical political action. If it sells its principles, 
it is no longer a political party, but only an organized appetite. 

Socialism the Driving Force Against the Courts. 

Nor do I think so poorly of the American people as to believe 
for a single instant that the way to win a Presidential election is to 
cast principle to the winds and to build our hopes upon the shifting 
sands of expediency. Have we not had a convincing illustration 
within the memory of every one of us? Who does not remember the 
struggle in the Republican Party and in its National Convention at 
St. Louis in 1896 to bring about a specific declaration in favor of the 
gold standard of currency with that one little word of four letters 
plainly written in it? Were we not told that we were throwing away 
State after State, that we were disrupting the Party, that, whatever 
might be the importance of the principle involved, we were engaged 
in a fatuous course that was fit only for idealists and quite unbecoming 
practical politicians? We stood up and made the fight, the Repub- 
lican delegation from New York, to their honor be it said, standing 
firm as a rock for principle. Every child in the public schools knows 
what happened. As we went before the people and made perfectly 
plain, in the simplest and most direct language, the issue of principle 
that was involved, a principle that was moral as well as economic, 
we reached their intelligence and their conscience. William McKinley 
went into the White House with an overwhelming majority of electoral 
votes and the question of a debased and fluctuating standard for our 
currency was settled forever. 

Why should we hesitate to follow precisely the same course in 
191£ that served us so well in 1896? Let us stand up before all the 
people of the United States and say that we propose to go forward 
with policies of true, not false, progress; that we propose to protect 
and care for human rights, whether of person or of property, without 
privilege and without monopoly ; but that we propose to do this under 
the fundamental guarantees of our constitutional government and in 
accordance with its representative forms. The United States Supreme 
Court has in luminous language declared that the meaning of our 
republican form of government is to be settled by political action and 

15 



not fey judicial decision. Let us make the maintenance of our repub- 
lican form of government a political question. Let us make it the 
leading and controlling political question. Let us insist that the spe- 
cific issues and questions of the moment be met and settled in accord- 
ance with our existing form of government, and that every attempt to 
supplant it with a direct and socialistic democracy shall he resisted by 
all the power and influence that we possess. 

Make no mistake, my fellow-Republicans; the inspiration and 
driving force behind the movement for the overthrow of representative 
institutions and for the attacks upon the integrity and independence of 
the courts is Socialism. There is the enemy. Socialists may well look 
on with satisfied contentment while the poor blind folk who still call 
themselves Republicans or Democrats do their bidding and labor to 
put into effect their policies. The civil liberty of the individual and 
the institution of private property are hateful in their eyes. They 
dream of a collectivist state in which every individual will be a pawn 
moved on the chessboard of industry and politics as the overpowering 
might of a numerical majority may determine. Do not call that 
progress. Do not call that consonant with a republican form of gov- 
ernment. Do not call that American. 

We must challenge these doctrines each and all, in our own Party 
and in other Parties, at the very outset of this campaign ; and we may 
be perfectly confident that if we do, the American people will respond 
just as they responded in 1896, and that after the polls close in No- 
vember next one more great question will be settled, and settled right. 
Our representative government will be secure from the attacks of 
believers in a direct and socialistic democracy. 

The Supreme Issue in the Campaign. 

The supreme issue in this campaign is the preservation of repre- 
sentative institutions and the maintenance of an independent judiciary. 
No other political proposal can approach in importance the mainte- 
nance of the form of government under which we live. It is idle to say 
that the novel proposals now made relate only to action by the states 
and not to action by the United States. The temperament and the 
spirit that bring them forward in the several states would easily find 
some plausible excuse to bring them forward in the nation if they were 
to be given the slightest encouragement. It will be well for us, there- 
fore, to spend a little less time in discussing the political "Who's 
Who," and considerably more time in clearing up our convictions as to 
the political "What's What." In doing so, let every American bear 
ia Blind the noble and inspiring words which Washington wrote in his 
farewell address: 

16 



"This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced 
and unawed, adopted upon fufi investigation and mature deliberation, 
complete! j free in it* principles, in the dktrfbiiiion of its powers, 
uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision 
for its own amendment, has a just ekisa to yeur confidence and y§u? 
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acqui- 
escence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental max- 
ims of true liberty. The basis of our political system is the right of 
the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But 
the Constitution, which at any time exists tM changed by an expKoit 
and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon 
alL . . . Toward the preservation of your Government and the 
permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that 
you steadily ^countenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged 
authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One mode of as- 
sault will be to effect m the forms of the constitution alterations which 
will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what 
cannot be directly overthrown. In afl the changes to which you may 
be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; 
that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency 
of the existing constitution of a country ; that facility in changes upon 
the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual change, 
from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion, '* 

The Specific Program of the Campaign. 

Let it be granted, as it must be if the Party is to endure, that the 
RepubMcan Party wM enter upon the campaign of 1912 in the spirit 
of Washington and of Lincoln, and firm in defence of the fundamental 
priftcnplss of our government, as well as unflinching in support of the 
rule of the people in accordance with those forms and institutions that 
reason prescribes and experience upholds. Then we snail be asked, 
and propsrly asked, what is our specific programme? So far as one 
member of the Party may make his voice heard, I wish to declare my- 
self for brief, sfespk, direct, and unequivocal declarations on the chief 
Matters whkh are now awaiting solution as national questions. Of 
these I name those wMch are of most importance : 

Workingmen's Compensation Legislation. 

(1) Publi* aplmeii is asking that greater protection be given to 
the IHe and health of the community; that workingmen's compensa- 
tion legislation be enacted; and that there be larger and more prompt 

17 



recognition of the social problem in its many phases. Under our form 
of government, the chief responsibility for meeting this demand rests, 
and must rest, with the Legislatures of the several States. In so far 
as the Congress has authority, however, the Republican Party should 
pledge itself to use that authority to the utmost in order that these 
beneficent ends may be promoted in the highest public interest and 
without indulging in economic orgies. 

A Modern Banking System. 

(8) Legislation should speedily be enacted, substantially as rec- 
ommended by the National Monetary Commission, to provide the 
people of the United States with an adequate, modern, and scientific 
banking system. This should not become a question about which po- 
litical parties struggle. It is a matter, however, of the greatest 
present importance to every business man in the whole United States — 
and therefore to th# entire population — -whether his interests be large 
er small. The whole force and power of the Republican Party should 
be given in a spirit, not of contention, but of patriotism, to the enact- 
ment of the necessary legislation. It is in the highest degree discredit- 
able to us as a people that we have so long tolerated conditions sur- 
rounding our banking and credit system that produce and intensify 
panics* make possible an unreasonable variation in the interest rate, 
and offer unexampled opportunity for dangerous speculation and for 
highly centralised, if wholly unofficial, control of the nation's banking 
resources. 

Readjustment of the Duties Imposed on Imports. 

(S) The just expectation of the people that the duties imposed 
on imports should be revised and reduced ought to be met without 
delay. There are three ways of fixing rates of duty on imported mer- 
chandise. These rates of duty may be ftxed f first, without any knowl- 
edge of manufacturing and commercial conditions whatsoever. This 
is not a good thing to do. These rates of duty may be fixed, second, 
on the basis of statements made by interested persons only, whether 
importers, manufacturers, or wage-earners. This is not a good thing 
to do. These rates of duty may be fixed, third, on the basis of infor- 
mation as to manufacturing and trade conditions obtained by a gov- 
ernment board or commission acting solely in the public interest and 
with a view to doing justice to manufacturer, wage-earner, importer, 
and the people as a whole. The last is the only way in which ihe 
Republican Party can afford to undertake revision and reduction of 
the tariff. In dealing with this problem we should never forget almost 

IS 



the last words of President McKinley, contained in his great speech 
at Buffalo: 

"The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade 
and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofit- 
able. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent 
reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the 
times; measures of retaliation are not." 

The Sherman Anti-Trust Law. 

(4j) During the past twelve years the meaning and application 
of the so-called Sherman Anti-Trust Law have been denned and clari- 
fied by numerous far-reaching decisions of the United States Supreme 
Court. That law should not, and need not, be amended or weakened. 
What is now needed is supplementary legislation, conceived in the 
same broad and statesmanlike spirit that the language of the Sherman 
Anti-Trust Law itself reveals, which will make possible administrative 
control, without preliminary judicial process, of individuals and cor- 
porations engaged in interstate commerce, so far as this may be neces- 
sary to prevent monopoly and unfair practices. This will relieve busi- 
ness, both big and little, from the uncertainty and indecision that now 
hold it in cheek. In my judgment, experience and the judicial decisions 
*f the last twelve years indicate with some clearness the lines along 
which new legislation should be drawn. Hie proposal that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States shall fix the prices of articles used in 
interstate commerce, however, is absolutely abhorrent, and an illustra- 
tion of Socialism in one of its most maleficent forms. It is perfectly 
possible, by the use tA the taxing power, to control and to limit privi- 
lege and monopoly without placing ourselves under the tyrannical 
regime of government-mack prices. 

President TafVe International Policies. 

(5) The international policies which have dignified and made 
memorable the administration of President Taft should be continued 
and extended until we have convinced not only the whole civilized 
world, but ourselves as well, that we are committed to a policy of 
peace, good will, and the judicial settlement of international disputes. 
The organization of our own Federal Government illustrates to the 
fullest extent the possibilities of a civilized world in which one standard 
of justice rules and one great court is its final interpreter. Some good 
people have yet to learn that a treaty with another nation, pledging 
ourselves to submit all differences between the two nations for judicial 
settlement, is no more an alliance than a law suit is a marriage. This 

19 



will perhaps become clear in time, even to the most boisterous element* 
of our population. 

Appalling Extravagance Should be Checked, 

(6) The appalling extravagance of government should be 
checked, and the Republican Party should pledge itself to check it. 
It may well be asked whether, in instituting a much-needed inquiry 
into the high cost of living, we should not begin with an inquiry feato 
the high cost of being governed. An experienced statesman is reported 
to have said that the Government of the United States could be eon- 
ducted at a saving of $000,000,000 a year if it could be organized on 
business principles. It would be an act of constructive statesmanship 
to make a serious effort to test what saving could actually be made by 
a more business-like and economical conduct of government, in order 
that the burden of taxation may be relieved. The conventional excuse 
for a huge appropriation k that this is a rich country. It is not the 
country, however, that pays taxes ; taxes are paid by human beings. 

Natural Resources Should be Developed. 

(7) Those natural resources of the country that still remain 
part of the public domain, whether forests, mineral lands, or water 
power, should be so used and developed as to give the benefits of own- 
ership to the people as a whole while affording opportunity to those 
who undertake the task of development to gain a fair reward for their 
labor and their investment. 

Elimination ©f Long Delays and Expensive Appeals in Civil Cases. 

(S) That the courts, both Federal and State, may bear the 
heavy burden laid upon them to the complete satisfaction of public 
opinion, steps should speedily be taken to avoid the long delays and 
the tedious and costly appeals which now so often amount to a denial of 
justice in civil cases and to & failure to protect the public at large in 
criminal cases. This reform would of itself relieve the courts of much 
criticism now directed against them, but which they, without legislative 
assistance, are not able to meet. 

In a short time we shall have completed the work that has called 
us here. We shall have declared our wishes and intentions and we 
shall have made a declaration of our principles. The Presidential 
campaign will soon ©pen with vigor and in earnest. There will be 
scenes of exeiteiBemt, no doubt; there will be appeals and counter- 
appeals, denunciations and counter-denunciations ; there will be great 
outbursts of enthusiasm and of feeling, of devotion to individual lead- 
ers, and of adherence to particular principles. Yet the next President 

2@ 



of the United States wiE not be chosen in any of these ways, nor will 
the policies of this Republic for the next four years be so determined. 

My mind goes back to a never-to-be-forgotten scene that I wit- 
nessed as a boy. It was my privilege to be present during the session* 
of tfte Bepublcan National Convention which met at (Sdfcag© in ihne, 
1880. Barely since the foundation of the Government had so many 
strong men of wide political experience and high political abiliy been 
gathered together in one hall. The members of that Convention were 
sharply divided. They were divided not only as to personalities, but as 
to a principle. As one M&me after another was mentioned f&r the Presi- 
dency of the United States, there were scenes of almost unparalleled, 
certainly of unprecedented, enthusiasm and excitement Under the 
impulse of strong feeMn^ men became as children, and noise, load 
and long-continued, gave exultant expression to emotions for which 
words were inadequate. After a Hmo there arose from his place among 
the delegates from the State of Ok!© a man of strHdng presence, who 
made his way to the platform to present to the Convention the can- 
didate of his choice. He began wit^ these impressive words : 

"As I sat in my seai and witnessed this demonstration, this 
assemblage seemed to me a human ocean in tempest. I have seen the 
sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the 
soui of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows, but 
the calm level of the sea, from which all heights and depths are meas- 
ured. When the storm has passed and the hour of eaka settles on 
the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its peaceful surface, then the as- 
tronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure afl 
terrestrial heights and depths. 

"Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not 
mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has 
passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find 
below the storm and passien that calm level of public opinion from 
which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by 
which their Una! action wiS be determined. 

"Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen thousand men and 
women are gathered, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed for 
the next four years. Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of 
seven hundred and fifty-six delegates waiting to cast their lots mto 
the urn and determine the choice of the Republic ; but by four millions 
of Republican firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with wives and 
children about them, with the calm thoughts mspired by love of home 
and country, with the history of the past, the hopes oi the future, and 
reverence for the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation 

21 



in days gone by, burning in thier hearts — there God prepares the 
verdict which will determine the wisdom of our work to-night." 

The man who spoke these words was James A. Garfield, and he 
was destined to become the next President of the United States. 

So, my fellow-Republicans, I say that it is not in heat, in temper, 
or in passion, that the next President of the United States will be 
chosen. He will be tiie deliberate choice of the American people after 
they have had time to think, after they have had time to weigh the 
attacks upon the foundation of their Gorernment, and after they hare 
had time to contemplate the almost immeasurable distance which sep- 
arates that progress which is true and lasting from that progress 
whisk is false and destructive. 



22 



SENATOR ROOT'S SPEECH 

Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of tk# Go&veaMm; I feave m$m t§ ucsmi 
the resolution reported by the Obaatoiss ®i f&m? $mm^$z % \mk X &Wl 
confine what I have to say to a skgle smfejMb iywsie^ % t|& s«mes 
of resolutkns, the subject whfeh covers tie 0^&$k% f© t&i«t*fere ^d&h 
the independence and destroy the a&fchorily of tke judf«J&l i^i&yiBisnt 
of our Government. I Conine myself to tKk bec&use I regard it as of 
overshadowing and ov^whehmmg importance. We amy ohaags our 
tariff laws, and if we are not satkiisd with tfe«sa we may change fh$m 
again. We may change our raeftiod of nominating omcers, and If the 
system &®es not work right we change it again. We ean change our 
method of electing officers and change it again. AH the ordinary laws 
wlaeh affect the conduct of business and m& relations of men %® each 
other and the powers of government hi general may be changed and 
reehanged to suit the developing feeisgs and interests and opinions of 
the people, but the duty of submitting our will, whether it be the 
will of 1fa& individual or the wifi ©f ths greatest majority that ever 
gathered at the polls to the eternal priaacipks ©f justice, that can never 
be changed without the degradation of the people who reject it. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Founders of the Republic Wise Men in More Ways Than One. 

The founders of ouj republic were wise men in more ways than 
one* They understood history and the philosophy of government, 
and they understood human njtee. They were students, and they 
were men of affairs, and they founded our government upon t^o basic 
propositions, upon two underlying truths. One of th&m was the truth 
that you and I learned in. our childhood, for we came of a GQ$rimring 
people as they did. We learned and we should not forget that our 
natures are weak, prone to err, subject t© faH into temptation mi ho be 
led astray by impulse. AH the history of religion, of memHiy, of gov- 
ernment, all the history of men, teems with universal and ©verohehaing 
proof of this great truth, upon a recognition of which our civil society 
rests. They knew, too, that men are no more perfect in the mass than 
they are as individuals. They knew that indeed when men come together 
or act in great bodies, free from the sense of personal responsibility, they 
will often do things that they would shrink from doing as individuals. 

23 



The party whose vitality has brought us here was founded upon 
instance, to the spread of that doctrine under which vast majorities, 
overwhelming majorities m the states covering nearly onenhalf el oui 
land, majorities composed of men as true, as honorable, as noble, ai 
live in America, or anywhere on earth, united in holding mllUons oi 
black men slaves. The life of the Republican Party was a protest 
against that rule of the majorities m the South, We live as an organ- 
ized protest against the majorities that defy the rule of justice. 

Principles ©f Right Conduct. 

One other great fundamental psrkdple they based themselves upon, 
and that was that there is only one way m which man cam control hi^ 
own tendencies to error, and that is fey the adoption, the recognitiou 
and the enforcement upon himself of declared principles ©I right eon- 
duct. So throughout the history of the wodd the assertion of prin- 
ciples to govern men and to restrain their impulses has been the method 
of advance in morality, m social conditions, in clvOix&tlon. Principles 
inculcated by religion, the principles of shells! honor, the violation of 
which is visited by the community with penalties more terrible than 
the prison and the execution; declared principles of action, sometimes 
enforced by a Superior from above, sometimes enforced by intelligent 
self-control, are the only antidote, the only remedy, the only preventive 
or that yielding to impulse which to-dajr mates iJtm people of 
Mexico one tumultuous mob, devastating that fair knd whkh had 
taken so many forward steps under the rule of law and order along 
the pathway of dvilkatson. Upon these two foundations coy govern- 
ment wai based, and for that imposition of rules of conduct that for- 
merly came from a monarch our fathers substituted the imposition oi 
rules of right conduct by the people, upon Aemselves. They put 
the declarations of principle into our organic laws in colonies, in states, 
and in the nation, and we call them constitutional limitations. 

Confutations! limitations XmpsrsonaL 

There is prejudice is some minds against the discussion of con- 
stitutional limitations, because lawyers become irj and tedious and 
narrow and technical in discussing them, but they are the declaration 
of those principles of eternal justice upon which dviikation rests, set 
up bv the people for their own guidance They are a covenant between 
&E tlie people, and every man, every woman and every chUd in the 
Ftate- They are a covenant between arbitrary and overwhelming 
power and the weakness of the individual These constitutional limita- 
tions are necessarily established in the abstract. They are impersonal 
Thev are the rules of action which are established when men have no 

24 



particular interest at stake. They are the rules of action that are 
established when there is no strong desire to do injustice. Universal 
and impersonal, they constitute the nearest approach that humanity 
has ever come to putting into human law the divine rules conformity 
to which is the requisite of a Christian civilization. These lim- 
itations cannot be enforced except by having some one who shall 
say whether a particular action that they design to restrain does 
violate them or not, and in order that they may be determined, in order 
that the line may be drawn, our fathers established the judicial system 
in which there should be placed judges impartial, upright, free from 
any complicity in the interests that came before them, who should do 
justice in accordance with these declared principles, to rich and poor 
alike, without fear or favor or hope of reward. Upon the independence 
and the authority of those judges depend the perpetuity of this system 
of restraint upon ourselves which is essential to the prevalence of jus- 
tice and the continuance of our free institutions. 

Making Cowards of Judges. 

Now, if you undertake to say to a judge that if he decides against 
the popular will that finds itself restrained by the declaration of one 
of these principles of conduct under the Constitution he shall be re- 
called, you make a coward of him. (Applause.) It is not in human 
nature that judges shall hold the scales just as evenly when they know 
that by making an unpopular decision they themselves will be the sac- 
rifices. It will introduce the rule of cowardice in place of the rule of 
courage. It will introduce the rule of time-serving in place of the rule 
of fearless justice. It will introduce the rule of the force of the great 
body of the people instead of the rule which protects the weak indi- 
vidual against all the people. (Applause.) And so, with the pro- 
posal that the people shall pass by vote upon the decisions of the 
judges as to constitutional questions; that means that wherever a 
constitutional limitation has been established to prevent the people 
from doing injustice, when it comes to the point of action they 
themselves shall determine whether they will be restrained by it or 
not in the particular case where the injustice may be done. These rules 
must be kept impersonal, abstract, universal, in order that they may 
restrain and guide action in each particular case. It is so that just 
men rule their own conduct. They do not make up their principles as 
they go along accordingly as they wish to do this or that or the other 
thing. They determine their principles and then they direct their con- 
duct and restrain their wishes by making them conform to the principles 
they have adopted beforehand. These fundamental bases of our Gov- 
ernment do together assert and set up as the great pivotal principle of 

25 



national conduct the proposition that there is such a thing as justice 
that is above majorities and is independent of popular will. (Applause.) 
All the votes in America cannot make injustice, justice. It is impos- 
sible that any two beings should be created anywhere in this universe 
and come into life without being subject to the eternal law that re- 
quires just conduct by them toward each other. Abraham Lincoln in 
the first inaugural described the true character of our government. He 
said: "A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limita- 
tions and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular 
opinion and sentiment is the only true sovereign of a free people. Who- 
ever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or despotism." Aye, who- 
ever rejects the order of a majority acting within the restraints of these 
eternal principles declared in our Constitution flies of necessity to an- 
archy or despotism, and whoever breaks down the restraints of these 
eternal principles upon the majority, flies of necessity to anarchy 
or despotism. All these other matters are of little consequence, 
for this is the fundamental principle. This is a decisive question. It 
is along this line that the progress and development of our country 
has won its way. You may change it; you may depart from this old 
standard of justice enforced by an independent judiciary, as God's 
people many a time have turned their faces away from Him. You 
will not see the difference at once, not to-day, not to-morrow, or for 
many morrows, but the paths will surely and steadily be diverging ; one 
pathway is the pathway of the decline and fall of nations, and it leads 
of necessity to anarchy or despotism. The other pathway is the glori- 
ous one upon which our country, with its constitution, declaring the 
everlasting principles of divine law, has proceeded in its majestic course 
of advancing civilization, leading the world in winning for all mankind, 
rich and poor, high and low, the inestimable privilege of liberty, with 
order, preserved by justice. (Applause.) 



m 



SPEECH OF FORMER SPEAKER JAMES W. 
WADSWORTH, Jr. 

We should count it fortunate that a gathering of this sort, com- 
posed as it is of the representative Republicans of New York, whose 
coming together needs no defense against statute or custom, should 
take place at this time. A public arena is here afforded in which can 
be debated the exceedingly grave questions which assail the intelligence 
and conscience of the American people; and upon the deliberations 
here conducted the attention of all citizens may be thoughtfully di- 
rected. To discuss these questions is timely, it is proper, and it is 
patriotic. That time has gone by when thoughtful men can afford to 
regard with amused tolerance the efforts constantly expended toward 
destroying the structure of government erected on this continent in 
1789. So successful have the enemies of a representative democracy 
appealed to the imagination of the people; so swiftly have they pro- 
gressed toward radical change, that we already witness the virtual over- 
throw of the old form in many of our commonwealths, and its threat- 
ened destruction in all of them. After the capture of the states, which 
is confidently predicted, will come a mighty assault upon the Federal 
Government. In fact, the Federal Judiciary and the Federal Legis- 
lature have already been singled out for radical change, if we are to 
take seriously some proposals voiced upon the public platform or con- 
tained in pending bills and resolutions. 

A Crisis in the History of the Country. 

So to-day we Republicans have reached that point in our history 
as a party at which we must decide where our party shall stand in this 
nation-wide contest. Shall we view with indifference the efforts of 
agitators to establish a pure democracy in this nation, or shall we, 
true to our original purpose and all our subsequent history, strongly 
contend for the preservation of American institutions and the Amer- 
ican Constitution? 

Our government is being attacked to-day in all its branches — ex- 
ecutive, legislative and judicial. Through the operation of what is 
known as the recall election, all executive and judicial officers are to be 
sapped of their courage and that degree of independence which is so 
essential to the intelligent performance of their functions, and are to 

21 



be compelled to accede to the popular whim or sentiment of the hour 
under pain of immediate removal and disgrace. By means of those 
twin weapons, known as the popular initiative and referendum, the 
legislative branch is being deprived of its power and sense of respon- 
sibility, and is being reduced to a condition which can hold forth no 
inducements to men of ability and self-respect; and, furthermore, and 
this is more important, the judiciary is being forestalled in any effort 
that branch might make in protecting the minority of the people from 
injustice and oppression at the hands of the majority. In fact, the 
ultimate object of this movement seems to be to remove every element 
of protection for the rights of the minority and to repose absolute and 
instantaneous power in the majority, regardless of the constantly shift- 
ing elements of which it is composed ; and, strange to say, the propo- 
nents of these schemes to place instantaneous power and entire confi- 
dence in the mass, base their contention upon the assumption that the 
mass of the American people have shown no talent for selecting proper 
men to administer their government and make their laws. 

The Initiative and Referendum. 

The popular initiative and the referendum — and these I intend to 
discuss in particular — have been in operation to a greater or less ex- 
tent for some years in our State governments, and it is possible for 
us to examine their workings and judge their results pretty accurately. 
For some time here in New York we have known the referendum as 
applied to constitutional amendments and propositions looking toward 
pledging the credit of the State, the initiative in these matters being 
left to the Legislature. While I believe that the Legislature and the 
Governor might well be granted somewhat broader powers in the matter 
of the State debt, no one contends against the submission of Constitu- 
tional amendments to the Electorate; the organic law setting forth the 
general principles which shall guide the government comes from the 
people ; they have made it, and any effort to change its structure must 
be submitted to them for approval; the people themselves must act as 
a check, upon their own representatives when it comes to changing the 
organic law. To contend otherwise is un-American. And yet the advo- 
cates of the extension of the referendum can derive little comfort from 
the practical operation of this principle ; for, in spite of the importance 
attached to a proposal for amending the organic law, it seldom hap- 
pens that the successful amendments receive an anirmative vote exceed- 
ing S3 per cent, of the total number voting for State officers on the 
same election d&j. As a matter of fact, even our Constitutional amend- 
ments are carried by a minority — a condition which does not promise 

28 



well for the operation of the initiative and referendum in the vastly 
broader and more complicated field of law-making. 

But we do not find ourselves confined to the field of conjecture on 
this subject, for some States have already established complete schemss 
of direct legislation, and are now engaged in carrying them to their 
logical conclusion. In such States as South Dakota, Oregon and Okla- 
homa the door has been opened wide to law-making by direct popular 
vote. At the demand of a petition signed by a stated percentage of 
the voters, varying in the different States from fi\t per cent, to ten 
per cent., an act of the Legislature must be referred to the people 
for ratification, or by a like percentage of signers a law or Constitu- 
tional amendment may be proposed and placed before the people with- 
out previous passage in or consideration by the Legislature. The 
door once having been opened to admit the entrance of this principle, 
the very momentum of the movement forces the opening of it to the 
widest extent. As a consequence, not only are subjects of the gravest 
and most far-reaching importance placed before the people of these 
States for their immediate approval or rejection, but a large number 
of trivial matters are at the same time forced upon the attention of 
the electorate. Whether it be the exceedingly important proposal for 
permitting three-fourth3 of a jury to render a verdict, which was made 
And approved in Oregon, or whether the question be simply the duties 
of a sheriff in relation to prisoners, or the changing of the boundaries 
of a single county, or the fixing of the salary of a district official, 
every proposal, great and small, which is petitioned for, must be voted 
upon. 

How It Operates in Oregon. 

Since 1904 in four elections, 64 proposed amendments and laws 
have been submitted to the people of Oregon — 2 in 1904, 11 in 190#, 
19 in 1908, and 82 in 1910. From this it appears that the number 
and variety of questions forced upon the attention of the people under 
this scheme is increasing by leaps and bounds, and the value placed 
upon a legislative body under these conditions is indicated by the 
refusal of the people of Oregon, as expressed in a popular referendum, 
to pay the members of their Legislature in excess of $120 per year. 
Of the 64 proposals, 26 have been Constitutional amendments, and it 
is to be remarked that the initiation of an amendment to the organic 
law is as easily accomplished as that of an ordinary bill. Should the 
courts invoke the well-known and carefully adjusted provisions of the 
Constitution for the protection of the minority and individual liberty, 
the majority, fanned by passionate resentment, may write its own doc- 
trine into the Constitution in three months' time. The logical exte»~ 

29 



sion of this system to the municipalities of these commonwealths has 
already brought the local ordinances and charter provisions into in- 
evitable conflict with the State laws, and the courts of these States are 
to-day puzzled in their attempts to reconcile the resultant inconsisten- 
cies. There can be no orderly progress or sysematic development of 
public policy as expressed in the Statutes, for all elements of guidance 
and control are of necessity removed. Constitutions practically cease 
to exist or become so filled with constantly added provisions properly 
belonging to Statute law that they no longer bear any resemblance t« 
organic law, nor do they possess the requisite stability of a bill of 
rights. 

An Age of Specialization. 

We are accustomed to believe, and I think our belief is correct, 
that it is an age of specialization. Our modern social and economic 
conditions have become so complicated that through our very necessi- 
ties we are calling upon students and specialists to help solve our difii- 
culties. This same necessity exists in an equal degree in the conduct of 
government in its widespread functions. More and more do our execu- 
tives and our legislative bodies require the advice of experts, and in 
recognition of the wisdom of obtaining such advice we have established 
both in the nation and the State investigating boards and commis- 
sions who shall devote their entire time and skill in examining various 
problems and making suitable recommendations to the executive and 
legislative branches. The comparatively recent acceptance of the wis- 
dom of this policy constitutes real progress in governmental reform and 
improvement in social and economic conditions. Instead of strength- 
ening and perfecting this policy of orderly progress, based upon expert 
testimony, the initiative and referendum make it impossible, and to 
that very serious extent they are retrogressive; for under this scheme 
laws are drawn in secret by irresponsible and self-constituted authors, 
without the calling of expert testimony and without seeking the advice 
of those who have made a special study of the subject affected by the 
proposed law. Through the activities of a small group of men, a law 
is placed before the people de novo; no opportunity for amendments 
is permitted, deliberate and exhaustive debate in the public forum is 
denied, the people are told that they must take it or leave it as it 
stands. The learned jurist and the experienced legislator must give 
way to the honest zealot or the crafty conspirator ; and the courageous 
and far-seeing Chief Executive, curtailed of necessity in his veto power, 
must stand aside and witness the accumulating confusion. Surely bj 
@#mparison this practice is reactionary rather than progressive. 

38 : ; . 



Present System of Legislation by No Means Perfect 
It were idle for any one to contend that our present method of 
legislation is perfect; indeed, it is far from such. The complaints 
against it and its results are widespread, and in many respects fully 
justified. The fact that we believe that the remedies proposed by the 
radically inclined are worse than the disease, should not blind us to the 
necessity for vast improvement. I think every student of legislative 
methods and procedure will admit that many if not most of our laws 
are loosely drawn, carelessly considered, and in a great number of 
instances absolutely fail to accomplish the object desired. Whether by 
reason of ambiguity in language or the intentional insertion of mis- 
leading phrases, we find the administration of the law constantly handi- 
capped and halted by the necessity of applying to the courts to declare 
what the law means and whether or not it is within the bounds set by 
the Constitution. Time and again the courts in effect are called upon 
to actually legislate, so obscure and imperfect are the laws submitted 
to them. Time and again the courts are compelled to declare a Statute, 
whose general object is much desired, utterly null and void. In my 
judgment the constant recurrence of these incidents, involving, to a 
very serious degree sometimes, the actual setting at naught of the pop- 
ular will, has done more than anything else to arouse a general rest- 
lessness amongst the public and a greater or less degree of resentment 
against our law-makers and our judges. I contend that the fault does 
not lie in our system of representative government as such, nor does it 
lie with the legislators or judges as individuals. The fault lies in this 
fact that we have utterly neglected to perfect our methods of legis- 
lating. Little or no attention has been given in this country to the art 
of bill drafting, nor have any checks been provided against the indis- 
criminate introduction of bills in our legislative bodies. Introduced as 
they are without previous revision and submitted literlly by the thou- 
sands to our legislatures, it has become absolutely impossible under 
our present method to accord to them that careful consideration which 
the ever increasing complexity of our government demands. Some- 
thing must be done, some additional agency must be created to assist 
the legislator in his task. Many years ago the great parliamentary 
bodies of England and the Continent recognized the necessity of gome 
such instrument. For many years these bodies, and in particular the 
British Parliament, have employed trained experts to assist them in 
their legislating, and with astonishingly beneficial results. The neces- 
sity of referring all legislative proposals to a commission of expert 
revisionists before their introduction into the legslative body proper 
has been thoroughly recognized in Parliament, and not only has the 
mere introduction of bills been curtailed and controlled along intelii- 

31 



gest Mnes by this method, but time limits have been set by meaas ©f 
which the sudden introduction of a bill and its hasty passage is madb 
impossible. If our body of laws is to be rescued from its present state 
of confusion, and if our law-makers are to be restored to that degree •£ 
public confidence which they intrinsically deserve and which the Con- 
stitution assumes they possess, some such method of perfecting and 
strengthening the legislative machinery must be adopted by this coun 
fery. From time to time various steps in this direction have been taken, 
but unfortunately they have not been followed out to their full fruition, 
f erhaps because the public has not enthused over a problem which 
m%ms one of technique merely. 

New York's Legislative Bill-Drafting Bureau. 

In this State a small beginning was made a few years ago by the 
etsablishment of a legislative bill-drafting bureau whose functions 
to-day are to extend expert assistance to members of the Legislature 
whenever they apply for it. Many additional steps are required before 
the object sought can be attained. The functions of this bureau should 
be enlarged and more power given to it. The submission of bills to a 
commission of recognized experts prior to their introduction and con- 
sideration by the Legislature should be made compulsory. Provisions 
should be made for the submission of proposed laws to this commission 
before the actual meeting of the Legislature, as far as they may be 
practicable. The objects sought to be attained should be stated at 
the outset, and the name or names of the proponents should be at- 
tached ; and, furthermore, the filing of such a bill and the prescribed in- 
formation accompanying it should be made a matter of public notice 
and advertisement for a stated period prior to its consideration by the 
Legislature itself; and a point of time should be fixed approximately 
midway in the annual session of the Legislature after which only bills 
which shall be deemed to be of the utmost importance shall be intro- 
duced. In no other way than by such a system as this—and I ha^e a© 
prejudice as to details — will we be able to secure genuine reform 
through the laws. In no other way will we be able permanently to h$ 
rid of the lobby, with all its sinister influences. In no other way shall 
we be able to establish a parliamentary bar whose members may taJko 
pride in being permitted to practise their profession in one of its high- 
est branches before our law-making bodies. In no other way shall we 
be able to preserve the efficiency and dignity of the legislative bmsida 
of the government. 

The People Govern Themselves. 

The foundations of our government are laid in the principle that 
a peopk cam best govern themselves by selecting from Ihm mfdfet rup- 

32 



resentataves who shall act for them and bear the responsibility in the 
broad light of day. And at no time hare our people been unable to 
control their destinies under this system. No executive or legislature 
has ever succeeded in ultimately thwarting the popular w3L If there 
has seemed to be delay at times, that delay has been generally com- 
pensated for by an added efficiency in the reform which is ultimately 
accomplished. The structure which has sheltered us for so many years 
has from time to time developed defects, but it has sheltered us remark- 
ably well, and its foundations are bui>fe upon the rock of reason. We 
are urged to tear the structure down, uproot the foundations and 
substitute for it a scheme of government which is not new by any 
means, but rather is as old almost as human history. It was tried in 
the democracies of antiquity, and in every instance disaster, anarchy 
and tyranny resulted. It wa£ tried in the Middle Ages, and again at 
the end of the Eighteenth Century. It always failed, for the simple 
reason that deliberative, calm reasoning was not made the cornerstone 
in its construction. It fell to the lot of the founders of this Republic 
to first solve the problem of self-government on a large scale ; they did 
so by creating a Constitution and a government under which the people 
voluntarily place upon themselves restraints sufficient to protect them 
from the waves of passion and resentment which worked such destruc- 
tion in the old form of pure democracy. Surely we have done well; 
certainly it would be foolhardy to tear down and destroy the structure 
of our fathers. Rather should we perfect and strengthen it, give it 
added efficiency and vitality, in order that we may perpetuate a genuine 
government hy the people mirrored in conscience and reason. 






SPEECH OF JOB E. HEDGES 

Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Convention: This begins to 
look like a real convention. Nothing has happened to contribute more 
to mj peace of mind than the remarks of my very earnest and very 
sincere and very loyal friend, Mr. Prendergast. Sometimes, however, 
in the heat of advocacy the judgment may be turned from a strict line 
of reason, Doctor Butler needs no supporter in me, and yet one cause 
of solicitation can be removed here in a moment. The patent medicine 
man referred to yesterday was Doctor Woodrow Wilson. (Applause 
and laughter.) That would seem to relieve one element. Mr. Wilson 
is Doctor. He has applied for a patent. But it will not be issued. 
It is well as we sit here in convention to stop for a moment and see 
what our function is as a Party. I have been through the State with 
ray good friend Prendergast many a time, and the encomiums passed 
upon our Party by Doctor Butler yesterday were as nothing com- 
pared with what Prendergast and I said it had done. And I wondered 
at the worthy Doctor's moderation. It occurred to me that he had 
been rather cursory in his study of the Republican Party. It is true 
that there is unrest all over the world. There always has been; there 
always will be, and there always should be. A man who cannot long 
for something better is not entitled to enjoy what he has. But whether 
a man is a progressive or not depends largely on the way he faced 
when he started, (Applause and laughter.) The good ship of state 
is well equipped when she has rudder and sail, and she can progress; 
but she may not get there if she doesn't have compass and chstft. I 
have known men to fee walkhag backward all their life, and they will— 
they are a providential dispensation to show other men the Erection 
in which not to go. There is socialism in Germany ; there is socialism 
on the Continent There is socialism rampant in England; and why 
is it? Because the people who have come from there here have written 
back how much better w© are here, a^d they are discontented hi conse- 
quence. We haven't all we want. I haven't. It is natural for man 
to want more, and a man who does not want more could not enjoy it if 
he had it. (Laughter.) The question, my good friends, is on the 
divison* I know why brother Prendergast and I delight when people 
express divergent views. I know why he did not reply in full to Sen- 
ator Root. Not because he is not eloquent, but because you cannot 
answer a proposition that is co-eval with the human race, and not to 
recognize which, turns back a providential dispensation. It is true that 
when a man goes to the front he is a coward or not as he starts, but it 
does not help his moral uprightness to tell him that when he gets there 
you are going to court-martial him for having done what you told him 

34 



to da. (Applause.) I do not worry about the Democrats having voted 
by the clock. I am glad they did. It shortened the day limit for the 
moment We will practise the recall on them, Mr. Prendergast, re- 
gardless of this platform. 

What a Democrat Is. 

A Democrat is a man who only knows what isn*t. A Democrat is 
a man constitutionally capacitated to be unhappy. You have got to 
take a vote some time, once in a while. They took theirs a few days 
ago. Wt will take ours in November. Mr. Prendergast asked a very 
proper question : Do we aspect to oonvert the West to our ideas ? Yes. 
(Applause.) They told us once that silver could be made gold and we 
told them it couldn't. And we talked as if we meant it, and they only 
said: Oh, we were fooling; that is all! Now, the Republican Party is 
human, thank God. (Laughter.) It is human enough to err, but also 
human enough to correct it. We have given everything decent to this 
country that it has had for the past six decades. We cannot do more 
than that; and if they leave us alone a little while, we will give them 
indigestion with the consumption of added benefits, It is true that the 
last fifteen years or so were largely occupied by a gentleman for whom 
this convention has not declared itself, and I am very glad personally 
that it was so oeeupied. I differ very widely from some of the doc- 
trines of Mr. Roosevelt. I differ so widely that we can never come to- 
gether upon them ; but as long as I stand upon a platform where his 
personality may be am issue I would be unfair to my own sense of jus- 
tice if I did not say one thing: that he alone made all the people of 
the United States think at the same time upon the duties of American 
citizenship. I differ from him when he says that having thought they 
must follow his ideas or be In error. 

No Man Can Survive the Constitution, 

I do not care personally whether a man occupies ©ae term or two 
or three or forty. He cannot survive the Constitution. But I dread 
to think, Mr. Chairman, that the continuity of the Government must 
be predicated on a personality. Now, what is the situation fn this 
State this fall? We had a primary in New York. I am here. We had 
one in Kings. Prendergast is here ; and you are here, and you are glad 
that we are here, and if you aren't, we are. Do the people rule? Pren- 
dergast and I believe that they do. Have the people ruled? The gov- 
ernment still exists. Will the people rule? And here Prendergast and 
I part. I leave it to the people to decide whether they will. No cloak 
on past responsibility can cover a present deformity. You cannot get 
any right to character by prescrip tion. Because we may have been 

35 



good in the past, it does not prove that we are now, nor does it dem- 
onstrate that we are bad. This is a little home circle, and it is a good 
thing to talk it out, and it does not make any dl# erenee what Pren- 
dergast or I think about each ether or about Mr. Tart or about Mr. 
Roosevelt, because what he and I will say this fall about the Demo- 
cratic nominee wM do him no good. (Laughter.) New, let us get 
down to business. Are we going to nominate Mr. Taft? Yes. (Ap- 
plause.) Don't worry about me. It does not make me nervous. Are 
we going to elect him? Now, we have got that off Prendergastfs 
mind. There is an ocular demonstration of the recall of an idea. Why 
are we going to elect Mr. Taft? I will te& you. You know. But 
I am going to tell you ever again, because it is necessary. A 
vision that can only see something bad and nothing good is sort of 
self-stigmatized. I like to have a vision reach somewhere. I would 
rather have some visions reach somewhere than other things. We have 
spent no time in the past two or three years explaining to the people 
what they had. That is all the trouble. We have told them toe often 
what they haven't, so that they almost believe it, ai 1 we have let other 
people tell them what they had not, and they said it so earnestly that 
they almost believed them, and they have not had time to think it over. 
Nearly sixty years ago we had te reaffirm the Constitution of the 
United States. People had run nearly seventy years and they were 
confused. People had told each other, without giving a reason, that 
something was wrong. The Republican Party showed them what was 
right, and we went on another fifty-six years. Now, it is a remarkable 
ihmg to me that this country should seem on the abyss of ruin, which it 
always does every Presidential year. It never goes over because we 
never let it get beyond our reach, I seldom hear people describe the 
good things we have. 

Advantages ©f Life in This Country. 

I hear nobody say that in this country of all places of this great 
world a man can best work out his own salvation according to his own 
desires. Somebody must believe it, because a few millions come here 
every year. They do not believe what we say about ourselves. They 
are ashamed of us, and they come over here to demonstrate their fate, 
and we learn our lesson from them, People are paid here, not all they 
want, ©f course ; people have the advantages of intelligence and educa- 
tion and the dissemination of incMnation. No, my friends, what we 
have been mixed up in in this country is this, and this is the solution 
of it: There is no question within the confines of the American gov- 
ernment outside of religion and the duty a man owes to the God who 

36 



niatie liim that is not affected by the casting of the ballot. They have 
not been cast, that is all, and when people get in the habit of casting 
them they will have no complaint. I have no patience with quiet virtue. 
What we want to begin to talk about now, my friends, is not rights but 
obligations ; what does each man owe to the other ; what is he doing to 
help that other. When he seeks his own preferment, is he considering 
the rest? And my answer is that of all the parties that have ever 
existed in this country there has been none so responsive to the will 
of the American people as the Republican party, and I have heard 
Prendergast say it a thousand times. My admiration for him was 
never greater than to-day. The same independence of mind that I 
demand for myself I accord him. 

There is no question in American political life that we must not 
discuss. There is no theory in American life that we should not dis- 
cuss. If talking could ruin the Constitution, God knows it would have 
been dissipated years ago. But an exchange of ideas in the spirit in 
which we claim to act always results in moral strength at the end. 
Why do we win and our Democratic friends lose as a rule? Because 
they do not think further than the limitations of a campaign; that is 
why. They are personal and we are impersonal. We have not heard 
much said about our Democratic friends here to-day, not that they are 
entitled to much conversation, but from habit I like to talk about them. 
Those fifteen thousand votes in New York County are not fatal ; they 
were not a protest against Mr. Taft ; they were a tribute of respect to 
Mr. Roosevelt, and he is entitled to have fifty thousand people in New 
York County pay him their respects and, if I am not in error, he will 
tell them between June and November that they can best show their 
respect for him by voting for Mr. Taft. (Applause.) 

No Cause for Excitement. 
Now, do not let us get excited. We go through this every four 
years. The conclusive argument for one candidate against another is 
that his opponent cannot win. The Republican Party is going to win, 
and we are going to vote for Mr. Taft because he believes in the propo- 
sition of conduct regardless of personality. His contract with the 
American people was to be President. He has fulfilled it. No act has 
he performed as President of the United States that did not lay its 
foundation stone in conscientious belief. If he has erred in judgment 
at any time, let any man in this audience rise and assert that he himself 
has never erred, and then listen for the trump of Gabriel to summon 
him hence. No, do not let us get frightened. I personally do not know 
so much about this initiative as some people do. I do know the market 
price of signatures to petitions. (Laughter and applause.) 

37 



Dangers of the Recall. 
I do know that you can get lots of men to sign a petition for their 
own recall. I do not think a man is any wiser when he tries to recall 
something that he did in the beginning when he tried to call it up; no, 
they are all right; let them talk about them, they will try them; they 
are trying them, and in the very States mentioned they are discussing 
to-day whether they would not better recall their recall, and they are 
framing now an initiative that will result in the judicial recall of all 
systems. No. Just one solution if the body politic is afflicted with some 
sore, let us make it aseptic by purging it with the work of political 
activity now and then, and not talk about it all the time. Let us go 
to the polls and vote and we will be astonished at the result. Many 
people who are not represented in government are not entitled to be by 
virtue of anything they have done to get represented. Anybody can be 
represented who wants to be and will take the trouble to be. It takes 
too much time for other people to hand it to them. I differ with our 
Socialistic friends ; I do not see why they should not want all they can 
get, but they must not take mine at the same time; that is all. I be- 
lieve in trusts — two kinds. 

Why He is a Republican. 
I trust the God who made me, and the Republican Party which 
gave me my opportunities. I am for the party that makes men. I am 
for the party that has made this country. I am for the party that 
can see a principle before it can discover a man. I am for the party 
that is willing to admit that we are part of a providential dispen- 
sation. Now, let us, when we adjourn, after adopting these resolutions 
(laughter and applause) not talk about whether we are going to win. 
but how much we are going to win by. And whatever comment we may 
pass upon each other between now and June, let us consider it mere 
vocal practise and a sort of preliminary oratorical effort which will re- 
ceive its greatest fruition when directed toward the man who is uncon- 
verted to our belief. 

An Exhortation for Conciliation. 
Let us take our principles as seriously as may be, but remember we 
are all human. We all want to get along. We all have pride in per- 
sonal property. We claim property rights because they are the result 
of personal rights; but we are getting to a time now when we must 
give up a little effort, be a little less selfish, be a little more wholesome, 
and go into the campaign with head up ; men alert and conscious of our 
history, apologize to no man on earth, and go ahead and win and quit 
prophesying. 

38 



WILLIAM BARNES, Jr., EXPLAINS THE 
PLATFORM 

After the adjournment of the convention William Barnes, Jr., 
Chairman of the Republican State Committee, issued the following 
statement : 

"There should be no mistake in the minds of Republicans and of 
the electorate as a whole as to the meaning of this convention. 

"It was an earnest, sober appeal to the electorate that its will 
should be expressed through mental coherence and deliberative judg- 
ment rather than through histrionic and ambitious declarations 

"The platform endeavored to show the consistency and continuity 
of the development of American ideas and their formulation into law 
in an orderly rather than a disorderly manner. The achievements of 
the Republican Party have been all won through sobriety and appeal to 
reason rather than to prejudice. That party would be false to its 
entire internal quality and must change its physiognomy if it offers to 
the people vain hopes and dreams instead of substance. 

"No one disagrees with the fact that from day to day and year to 
year improvement in political conditions and in the administration of 
public affairs should be made, but where our opponents differ from us 
is in the method. The convention which adjourned to-day believed 
that under our form of government great results have come and that 
that structure is amply able to fulfil whatever demand may be made 
upon it. 

"The convention itself reflected the character of the platform in 
the dignity of its proceedings and the deliberation which characterized 
each successive act that it performed." 



30 



